Pink Annoyance
by TheOriginalAmy1
Summary: Amy goes through stages of events to find out who her real friends are, will she find the right guy along the way? A Shadamy story.
1. Pink Annoyance Story Info

Before hopping into Chapter 1, please read through the Pink Annoyance story's information. This is to clear up any questions you may have about the story or to simply not have you confused while you are reading.

**This story is an M rated story, however if you are 13+ you may read on. If you are sensitive to cursing, violence or a tiny bit of maturity please do not read on.**

**The themes of this story are Action, Adventure, Crime, Comedy, Drama, Romance and Fantasy. The main themes being Romance and Drama.**

Text - Normal Storytelling.

**Text** \- Thoughts/Thinking/Author's Note/Flashback cue.

_Text_ \- Flashbacks/Emphasis on words during storytelling.

**_Text_**\- Emphasis on words during a flashback.

**Text** \- Replying to a Review.

Text - A text message, letter, diary etc.

**Main Characters Ages and Info:**

Sonic: 21years old.

Tails: 16 years old.

Knuckles: 22 years old.

Sally: 20 years old.

Silver: 20 years old.

Blaze: 20 years old.

Cream: 13 years old.

Charmy: 13 years old.

Vector: 26 years old

Espio: 22 years old.

Rouge: 24 years old.

Amy: 18 years old.

Shadow: (Immortal) Mobian Form is around 19-21 years old.

**Info: - They wear clothing in this story. (Can people please identify to me what types of clothing exist please so I can improve the description, PM's are open always. Nonetheless, I shall do my research.)**

**\- The normalised age for going to a bar is 18 for them.**

* * *

OC's Ages and descriptions. (There are more to come. The list will be fully completed when the story is completed. Keep checking for updates!)

Tasha Honeywell (Tasha the Bear)

Age: 20 years old.

Appearance: Light orange fur with lime green eyes and brown medium length hair kept in a neat and tidy bun.

Species: Bear.

Occupation: Nurse working at G.U.N hospital.

Connections: Father is the CEO of G.U.N. Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Honeywell. (Gerald the Bear.)

Mya Sullivan (Mya the Cat.)

Age: 23 years old.

Appearance: Jet black fur with dark blue hair and orange eyes.

Species: Cat.

Occupation: Level 6 Apprentice Agent at G.U.N.

Connections: None.

_Extra Information about the Characters:_

Chief Henry Whiskers is a snow white-furred rat with pink eyes. (Henry the Rat)

He is the boss of the Apprentice Agents. He manages the 3rd-7th floors which are deemed as the low tier floors with Apprentice agents. He issues out missions and paperwork to those people only.

(General Mark Sachs) (Mark the Monkey) He is a red monkey with light blue eyes.

General Sachs is the boss of the intermediate agents and is in charge of the news, backup agents and behaviour management. He is in charge of the 10th-19th floors. Most agents fall into the middle tier rank due to this being the normal average level in G.U.N.

(Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Honeywell) (Gerald the Bear) He is a Bear with Golden yellow fur with lime green eyes.

LTC Honeywell is the boss of the elite agents (high tier agents) which is the 20th floor-26th floor of the building. He is one of the many CEO's of G.U.N and is in charge of collecting mission reports and sending in backup unit requests to the intermediate agents' (middle tier) boss (General Mark Sachs). Middle tier agents are used to helping back up elite agents on missions.

**_Extra information about the story:_**

\- **This story takes place in Möbius, their home planet. The locations may not be in Möbius but this is just for imaginative reasons.** **The locations may not make a lot of sense to you if you read this according to the actual Sonic Universe but hey, this is fanfiction.**

**\- This story consists of both the ships SonAmy and ShadAmy but the overall story is a ShadAmy story of course.**

**\- This story was written to shed light on a few things you don't know about certain characters e.g., (Shadow is not _just an edgelord _****who thinks he is better than everyone and Sonic is not_ all egotistical, neglects his friends or runs away from all of his problems._)**

**\- Another thing you should note is that Sonic is not the bad guy for kicking Amy off the team and falling in love with Sally Acorn. (Or another female character.) This story is not one of those cliché stories.**

**\- Timeline confusion: The Freedom Fighters kicked Amy off the team on July 12th XXXX and joined G.U.N on that same day. She trained for 2 months and became a Level 8 at that time. As soon as she joined G.U.N she asked to be put onto Team Dark. After some consideration, she was accepted on September 11th XXXX.**

**\- This story is rated M for a reason. So yes, there could be some steamy moments but there will be no lemons included unless I somehow change my mind. I would rather refrain from it because I'm aware that I have 13+ viewers. **

**\- Everything Except the OC's I have made belong to Sega.**

**This story is updated twice a month. Check back here twice a month to see if any updates are made to this story info. **


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

**Silence.**

Her ears rang with an intense quietness, despite the mobians that were enclosing her as if she was a wasps nest. It was becoming difficult to breathe as she breathed in extra air to keep her stinging lungs active. The choice was in her hands. _HER_ hands. The extreme influence of responsibility had never been listed in her mind and happened to her until this hair-raising moment. After all, she was only a sad, sorrowful and heartbroken little girl.

Or so she thought.

Her heart raced but with a growing, longing desire. Something that needed to be achieved instantly. Like the euphoria of an addiction. But this hunger,**_ this inclination_ **had consequences. She had to choose between her feelings or the end of the world. As a being would, she selfishly chose. Oblivious to the consequences and overcome by the ecstasy of impulse. The delight of gaining power. As the emeralds seemed to softly announce her name and send the ecstatic feeling at the chance of revenge down through her spine. It was right in front of her, right in her reach.

As both the Chaos and Sol emeralds gleamed throughout the room, it seemed as if they would no longer respond to anyone else except her. They gleamed in a dangerous light. She was strangely drawn to it...But wait. Why the Sol Emeralds? She couldn't control them. Why would she want to control them anyway? She looked over at Blaze who was stricken with fear. Then something clicked.

Suddenly, she understood. This wasn't her. She definitely wouldn't betray her friends like this. As soon as this clicked in her mind, her stomach collapsed almost instantaneously in awareness. She glanced down at her arms in a frenzy of terror, then looked up at her friends regretfully. She hadn't intended for this to happen. As her fur began to turn light pink, she shot her friends her most afflicted gaze that she could have gathered.

But the euphoria of it made her feel ALIVE. Like she was free to do anything. That was the most addicting part. She wanted, no, NEEDED this power.

But the question is, who was in control? She didn't want her true, toxic feelings on display like this.

As she blacked out, a silent scream was evidently plastered on her face. As the sound of desperation from her friends finally reached her eardrums, she realised that _it was too late._ She gathered in all the air she could to just say that one word.

'Run.'

All she had desired was a "_Happy Ending."_

Now, the world's demise would originate within her hands...


	3. 1 The Painful Truth

**Station Square**

**(Flashback) (2 months ago)**

**Tuesday ****12th July**

_Amy sat looking at her friends in disbelief. She could not process the words that had entered her ears._

_"Amy." a voice stated._

_Amy turned her head to her right as tears blurred her vision. She felt angry and betrayed. Why?_

_"We're sorry," the voice continued._

_And it was then her tears fell, the saline drops dampening her red dress. She demanded answers._

_"Why...?" she whispered, praying that this wasn't happening._

_"Amy, please just let me talk—" Sonic pleaded._

_"No, Sonic," she stated coldly, her friends slightly gasping, "Let me talk for once."_

_Sonic tried to retort but Amy just spoke loudly over him._

_"Right now, I feel let down, but I'm used to it by now since none of you bothered to have faith in me and have constantly judged me by my old self for years upon years. You lied to me, telling me that I was a part of the freedom fighters. I was naive, foolish and stupid to believe that I'd ever been a part of you guys! I felt like I BELONGED SOMEWHERE!" she yelled desperately._

_"Amy, Please!" pleaded Tails, "We're just trying to help you and tell you to take a break for 2 months at least—"_

_"I get it." she interrupted quietly, "Did you think I'd never noticed? The way you reluctantly allowed me to help out whenever Eggman would attack the city. When was the last time I'd gotten caught by Eggman? Huh? Do you think I don't have a life? I haven't grown up? Do you even KNOW me anymore? You could have just talked to me and told me to fix up. I could have trained harder."_

_Nobody wanted to make eye contact with her. It was true, Amy was not of much help on the missions because everyone assumed she would either get caught, distract Sonic or not be of any help of all. Amy was ashamed of her younger self. But what about now? Nobody would be happy if they were banned from being able to go on missions with their closest friends. Then it clicked in Amy's head._

_"You're not just telling me to take a break, you're telling me you'd be better off without me. Because you're replacing me with someone else aren't you?" Amy glared hard at Sally who sat across from her with uninterested eyes. Amy also looked at everyone else who still didn't want to make eye contact with her...then she realised._

_"You guys knew this was going to happen all along, didn't you?" she whispered._

_"AMY!" a loud voice echoed throughout the room, startling the mobians who were sat in the room._

_Sonic glared at her, his once calm forest green eyes now painted so clearly with rage, threatening to lash out at Amy._

_"Stop shouting at MY friends over something so goddamn petty! What the HELL do you expect us to think when you're always carelessly getting caught and acting childish around me? Grow up for once and see things from our point of view! I'm sick of sugar coating everything for you, but enough is enough. You're a distraction on missions and always endlessly getting caught." he yelled, blinded with rage._

_Amy gasped. That was partly true and she didn't have anything to counter back with._

**'Instead of**** asking me and talking to me about improvement, they kick me off the team without giving me a chance to improve?' **_A__my asked herself._

_She had an endless fall of tears rolling down her cheeks as she choked out her next words._

_"Oh, so now you want to insult me, Sonic the Hedgehog? This is exactly my point! How dare you try to replace me with Sally? Even if you love her, did it not click in that thick skull of yours that I love you Sonic? Did you care if it hurt my feelings at all? Unrequited love hurts. I go through it with you every single day, you oblivious hedgehog. I gave you respect and space when you fell in love with her and now I'm going to be put out of the picture? You can run fast but you don't think as fast, huh? Well, let me tell you something **Sonic The Hedgehog**." she stopped to breathe out, heavily and concentrated on the blue hedgehog._

_"I am** sick and tired **of being the source of your ego. So you can let me fall from wherever it is because I'm sure it's **way** past space by now. I am **sick** of being seen as my past self and I am **sick** of people who assume that I have nothing better to do with my life. People who claimed to be my 'so-called' friends."_

_"Get out..." a low growl emitted from Tails' mouth._

_"Pardon me-?"_

_"HE SAID GET OUT!" Sonic screamed, not even bothering to look at her. "And you know what...?"_

_"Don't bother coming back, you Pink Annoyance."_

_Amy, once again looked at them in disbelief. Looking around Tails' workshop, she expected to see a supporting pair of eyes. But not one empathetic face showed. Nobody even bothered to look up at her, knowing what Sonic had said was partly true and due to the fact that they also didn't want to be kicked off the team._

_Sonic, Sally, Knuckles, Cream, Silver, Blaze, Charmy, Espio, Vector and Tails._

_She took in their silence, as a betrayal of silence._

_Amy started to walk home slowly, the only place that she had left. That warm, cosy and accepting home. Those pink and white walls and the smell of her cooking every morning greeted her into another 'wonderful day'. Living alone, she had decided, was comfy but very quiet. But then she realised that she may have had to enjoy that solitude more often._

_As she walked down the road to catch a bus to the nearest train station to catch her train back to the other city she lived in, it started to rain. She frowned a little, not remembering the forecast saying anything about the rain. It was like the weather wanted to copy her demeanour and had read her mind as soon as she stepped outside. She hastily ran to the bus stop, getting a little wet in the process._

_As soon as she got there, the stop had been crowded with people who had just finished work and also did not bring an umbrella. Unfortunately, the bus pulled in a little too quickly and drove into a puddle, splashing water all over her boots and dress. The other passengers snickered slightly, relieved that it didn't happen to them instead. She growled lowly at them and got on the bus._

_The bus ride ended very quickly and soon enough Amy was at the train station, at the ticket booth buying herself a ticket to Central City, where she resided in her comfy city house. As soon as she pulled up to the booth, she quickly paid her 2 rings for the ticket and shoved it into her bag, fighting back the tears from the day so far, and concentrated about getting home. She set herself up in her seat and enjoyed the 10-minute ride home._

_As she walked outside of the station, she started to walk home in the rain slowly, overthinking what happened._

_'**Was it my fault? Did I seem like I had not grown up at all with those childish outbursts? No. I need to calm down.' **she said to herself._

_But she couldn't. All she could do was mope around until she finally passed G.U.N headquarters and sobbed her guts out, staring at a certain poster._

_SIGN UP TO BECOME A CANDIDATE, ALL IT TAKES IS 4 MONTHS TRAINING. LIMITED SPACES LEFT. STANDARD AGENT POSITIONS LEFT._

_Strangely, Amy felt like she finally had a purpose and somewhere to be. She thought that she knew just the people to confide in, well at least one of them, to take her under their wing. Still, she decided to journey her way into the building and sign up for the training program, hoping to change her path in life._


	4. 2 Confusing Revealations

**Location: Westopolis, Central City, GUN HQ**.

**(Flashback.) (2 months ago)**

**Tuesday, July 12th**

_Amy walked into the building as a soaked mess. A blast of hot wind welcomed her inside the foyer. This building did not look like she expected it to. It looked like a small foyer of a bank where two receptionists helped you out._

_Suddenly, a small grey hamster marched past Amy, almost ignoring her before doing a double-take and realising that Amy was standing there._

_"O-oh, hello Miss!" she squeaked, startled._

_Amy smiled to reassure her that there wasn't a problem._

_"Hi, I was wondering where I could sign up to become a G.U.N apprentice agent?" Amy inquired._

_She stared at Amy for a second, confused, before remembering something._

_"Are you sure? A young girl like you probably wouldn't last a week," she said, obliviously hurting Amy's feelings._

_Amy sighed in frustration, why was everybody underestimating her?_

_'**Oh well, it could be useful on future missions. That's if I get inside of the building and stop wasting time.' **she thought._

_The hamster then gasped in surprise._

_"You're Amy Rose from the Freedom Fighters aren't you? Why are you here?" she shouted._

_"Listen, I don't want this information leaking to the news okay? Can you just hand me whatever I need to sign and keep your muzzle shut?" Amy hissed._

_She looked at Amy, frightened, before running off to her desk to get the form. Amy briskly signed it and the hamster ushered her through a door. It was dimly lit and Amy was handed a new keycard and a lanyard that said:_

_**"Level 1 Apprentice." **_

_**"There seem to be 8 levels." **Amy thought as she put on her lanyard._

_As Amy started to walk through that door, she spoke to herself quietly._

_"Heh, Pink Annoyance? I'll make them eat those words."_

* * *

**(2 months later.)**

**Location: Team Dark's Office, GUN HQ**

**Tuesday, September 12th.**

**11:05am**

"Oh crap!" Shadow flinched at the obnoxious voice that came from across the room. Not even bothering to look up, he sighed and reluctantly tried to finish up the last two pages he had to work on.

"Shadow! Help meeee." Rouge whined. He clenched his teeth.

"Rouge, who the hell possessed you to paint your nails in here?" he asked, frustratingly turning around in his office chair. He was on his last nerve and considered moving over to the spare desk in his office. He heard Omega sorting and shredding old paperwork as he glared at Rouge for disturbing him.

Rouge's face took on a look of shock and mock offence before devilishly smirking. She had finally got his attention after being bored. She'd finished her paperwork long ago and they hadn't been on a mission in a while, so there wasn't anything due in until Friday. However, she did get nail polish remover all over her desk.

"Just because you've finally got something smart to say doesn't mean you can rub it in my face, Shadow. Unless you'd like some nail polish remover on those last two pages you have left." she retorted, threatening him with the strong liquid.

This bat knew how to get him irritated. He could feel a slight headache coming on...

"Rouge, just leave me alone and go home if you've finished your work. I'm not in the mood for your shit today." he snarled.

"Aww Shaddy, are you grumpy-?" she started, but never got to finish as she could sense the almost deadly aura coming from Shadow. He turned around and got on with typing angrily. Rouge looked at him in defeat, but she continued teasing him.

"I'm sorry I'll just go clean up my mess, Mr Joykill." she teased.

Shadow was about to lash out at her stupidity until they heard a knock on the door. A familiar annoying knock. Shadow got up from his chair, pulled down on the handle and swung the door open, startling the person on the other side.

"And what could YOU possibly want?" he asked, answering the door, not caring who it was.

**"It's that arrogant despicable secretary of a wolf." **Shadow thought.

He glared down at her while she flashed a fake, faint smile.

"Ahem." she cleared her throat, "If you're done with your tantrum Head Agent Shadow, I'd like you and Miss Rouge to come with me to the boss's office please."

"Elite Agent Rouge, to you _missy,_" Rouge commented. The secretary ignored her, unamused with Shadow.

"And if you're still not good at remembering names after 6 years Mr Hedgehog, I suggest you redo some training." she slyly commented, "Agents like you should remember their place."

Rouge rolled her eyes and stood in front of her.

"You're one to talk huh? Remember your position at this job _little miss secretary_ in this office, because this is where you're usually stuck when Elite Agents like me, actually do work. Not stuck in a dainty little office without a day of combat in my life like _you_."

The secretary blushed an embarrassed red while having a stare-down battle with Rouge. Shadow didn't have time for this.

Shadow rolled his eyes, yanking Rogue out of their office with Omega following behind. Then he rudely barged the wolf out of his way. She looked at them shocked before shaking her head and catching up to them, escorting them to the boss's office which was on the 30th floor. Shadow walked over with his other comrades in silence, his veins popping visibly in anger.

"If you don't calm down now Mr Doom n Gloom, those veins down there will be visible too." teased Rouge.

Shadow stifled a scoff at her childish dirty joke and kissed his teeth before opening the door to Cheif Whiskers office.

* * *

Amy walked around the large office building on the 3rd floor, monitoring others doing their work while occasionally finishing off her paperwork. But then, her digital communicator suddenly buzzed.

It read:

**'Please make your way to the boss's office. You have been assigned to a team.'**

She jumped up and yelled with excitement and breathing heavily as she carried her battle-toned 18-year-old body throughout the corridors to the elevator. She wore a white long-sleeved shirt with a red jacket over it and a black tight skirt with black heels. Her quills that were past shoulder length were in a curly ponytail with 2 strands left out in the front. She also wore light makeup such as mascara and matte red lipstick. She knocked 3 times before the door was opened by one of the Agents standing inside of the office.

"Good Morning," she stated.

"Ah yes, Special Agent Rose." he breathed out after staring at her.

She shifted uncomfortably before she took a seat to the right of his desk. He then started to speak.

"As you know, 2 months ago you joined G.U.N as part of being a cadet. At first, you were going to be a backup agent. But then you requested to be in Team Dark. I have no idea why you chose to be with that obnoxiously, irritating and impudent group." he complained, rubbing his temples in dissatisfaction. Amy frowned because she didn't want him to talk that way about them.

"So I asked you to prove that you have what it takes to be on one of the most elite teams in our Undercover Division. I put you to the test. I asked you to go on two of the missions that one of our colleagues had chosen for you. You successfully broke into the base of our top criminals using your tactics along with the training you were provided with. You also caught those criminals and you fought well."

Amy shuddered in discomfort while remembering that mission. There were so many things she didn't want to remember.

"Now," he sighed before continuing, "I'm pleased to delight you with the news that you have successfully made your way onto their team. You will meet with them today."

The door suddenly opened with voices, but Amy's outburst caused them not to pay attention to it.

"YES! Thank you Chief Whiskers, you don't know how much this means to me!" Amy yelled while throwing a fist in the air.

Shadow cleared his throat, still confused as to what was going on, while Rouge, Omega and Shadow stepped into the room to demand what was going on.

"Good Morning, Head Agent Shadow, Omega and Elite Agent Rouge." he greeted them, unamused. Amy waved at them. They hadn't seemed to recognise her at all. It made her nervous.

Shadow nodded his head to acknowledge them greeting him and kept his eyes glued to Amy, trying to figure out who she was.

"Amy...?" Rouge quietly whispered, horrified.

Shadow's heart skipped a beat before his face fell and he looked over to the matured rose.

**'That's Amy, but it doesn't look like her at all. The last time I had properly seen her was about 6 years ago.' **he thought to himself.

"And what is SHE doing here?" Shadow asked in a harsh tone.

"Calm that tone of yours, H.A. Shadow, If you would let me explain maybe you'd find out." he bellowed and motioned with his fat snow-white hands for them to sit down. Looking at them through his pink eyes he continued.

"Amy here has been an Agent in training for 2 months and has requested to be part of your team. She will be working as a Special Agent. So please refer to her as SA Rose if you must. Now tomorrow, I want you all to go on a mission together and see how you'll manage together. You may leave."

Before Shadow could even put his hand up to retort, an ivory hand shoved his sorry ass out of the room while they were followed along by the pink hog and Omega.

As Team Dark and their new comrade silently made their way to their home to get ready for their mission tomorrow, Shadow turned around, expecting Rouge to be scolding Amy but instead, they were talking calmly. It looked like Rouge was upset.

While they walked down the street to their home, Rouge demanded answers from Amy. Shadow just walked on ahead with Omega flying slowly behind them.

"What made you want to become a recruit, Amy?" Rouge asked, confused. She was trying to hide her worry and anger. When she didn't get a straight answer from Amy, she continued speaking.

"You know how dangerous it is here and I don't know if you're capable of working on our team."

Amy gave a long sigh before looking at the streets. She then ran her hands against some wall before taking in a deep breath.

"The Freedom Fighters kicked me off the team."

Rouge snapped her head over in Amy's direction, now feeling a surge of shock run through her body. Before Rouge could say anything else, Shadow cleared his throat and opened the door.

"We're here."


	5. 3 Unwanted Reunions

**Location: Westopolis, Central City, Team Dark's Residence.**

**3:58 pm.**

Amy walked into the warm house after experiencing the chilly September weather.

**"It's beautiful."** she thought.

On the Ground floor, there was an open kitchen near the living room and a massive dark purple couch with a couple of bean bags and a big dining table to the right. In front of it was a flatscreen TV, next to that was a bookshelf with board games and a stereo.

The first floor had Rouge's Room, a bathroom, a briefing room with mission tools and gadgets inside of it with a mini kitchen. And a balcony on the outside of it with dying plants. Amy made a mental note to fix that up later.

The second floor had 2 bedrooms (One belonging to Shadow) and another balcony. It looked dusty and unused and the key to it was nowhere to be seen. Amy made another mental note.

**'What was up with these balconies?' **Amy thought to herself.

Down the hall was a training room. And a mini gym.

And finally, outside was a huge garden, to Amy's delight, and an unused pool. She made a note to try to use that in the summertime. For now, she wanted to fix up that garden.

Shadow showed Amy around the place while Rouge was trying to communicate with Omega downstairs, setting some ground rules since a new teammate had moved in.

Shadow reluctantly sighed and opened up the spare bedroom on the second floor

**'It's spacious alright, but it looks like it hasn't been used since they moved in.' **Amy thought to herself.

She coughed with the dust all in her face while Shadow left her there to deal with it.

Amy set her two suitcases down from the cabin that she used to stay in while at G.U.N headquarters. She was forced to sell her house so that nobody could track her down. She had the option to move elsewhere or move into G.U.N headquarters. She decided on the second choice.

She then went over to the bed and removed the sheets and curtains to put them to wash. Then she made a list of what she needed to do to fix up her new room.

She needed re-paint the walls, buy new bedding, put up new curtains and she needed to borrow a car to move in the rest of her stuff...

As she was writing, all of a sudden, Omega appeared behind her. She yelped as he started speaking.

"Analysing Amy Rose," he said in his low monotonous voice.

"Amelia Franklin Rose. Now registered as an ally to Team Dark. Age:18 years old. Date of Birth, 23rd September. Running speed, 600mph. Melee weapon: Piko Piko Hammer."

Amy blushed and was astonished that knew all this info. Maybe G.U.N had updated Omega with their technology. Furthermore, she wanted to tell him that she no longer used her hammer unless there came a time for it.

"I think that's enough Omega." Rouge sighed from the other side of the door, clearly amused by Amy's embarrassing situation.

"Well Amy, we didn't finish our conversation from earlier," she commented, wanting to know why Amy was here.

Amy was still hurting from the pain of being cruelly kicked off the team and it was resurfacing after 2 months later. So she decided to quickly come up with an excuse to leave.

"U-uh, I think I'll talk later Rouge, I need to go out and buy things to fix up my room, ya know?" She replied, trying to convince Rouge with an awkward laugh.

Rouge looked at her, obviously not convinced at all, but stepped out of Amy's pathway, leaving her to put on her coat and heels. Then she ran down the 2 remaining floors and hurriedly slammed the door.

* * *

**Location: Westopolis High Street, Central Supermart**

**Time: 4:33pm**

Tails' hurriedly walked around the supermarket in Central City Isle to get the things he needed for his workshop as well as the snacks and drinks Sonic had requested. The problem was that the store seemed to have been renovated since he and Sonic had moved here. He was struggling to find a wrench which was misplaced by Sonic but it was the last thing on his shopping list.

Tails walked past aisles looking for the _"tools" _isle when he saw a pink flash. His heart dropped a little and he looked in front of him. The pink hedgehog turned right. He followed them, his gut instinct hoping that it wasn't Amy. When he saw their face when they took a sideways glance at something, he saw that it was indeed her.

Tails felt a surge of guilt, anxiety and anger pool in his stomach as he desperately tried not to growl or call her name.

He hadn't seen her for all this time though and he had finally found her, of course, he wanted to know what had happened within the last 8 weeks.

His hand reached out to touch her shoulder and he opened his mouth to take a sharp inhalation of air to speak that dreadful name.

* * *

"Shadow." Rouge desperately pleaded.

"No," he replied, his glare becoming more intense by the second.

"Just give her a chance please—"

"No!" he bellowed, "How dare she think that she walk up in here and disturb things? Having you on my team is already a nuisance, but I trust you. Omega is a pain in the ass, but Rose...? I can't trust her to go and mess our missions up. Why and how the hell is she even here—?"

"The freedom fighters kicked her off the team, Shadow." Rouge interrupted him.

His eyes widened and then went back to normal as he tried to process the information. Then he looked up to Rouge.

"If she's been kicked off the team, doesn't that make it worse? She may have been kicked off the team because of her uselessness—"

"Don't be a dick, Shadow."

He sighed while Rouge just rolled her eyes.

**'Well it could be true.' **he thought to himself.

Rouge walked over to his bed and sat down. He glared at her because he hated when people sat on his bed. Rouge just ignored him.

"Shadow. Try to see things from other people's point of view. You need to be aware of others feelings."

His silence gave her some way to continue talking. Rouge was not one for speeches, but unfortunately, she had to break it down for Shadow to understand.

"I don't want Pinky on our team any more than you do, but I don't think Amy is here to fool around. She was here training as an apprentice agent for 2 months and made her do 2 secret top missions which she passed with flying colours. I know cadet training may seem like nothing to you, but I think she's matured over these years. Don't you see something is a little fishy? She was kicked off the team and her friends didn't say anything when she joined G.U.N which means they probably don't know. She immediately requested to join Team Dark after she got here. The girl is alone and looking for some company. Try to have some empathy—"

Shadow interrupted her as he unhappily scoffed. He hated that word. It always caused something inside of him to switch.

"Rouge," Shadow stated.

"What?"

"Get off my bed and get out."

"But shadow-!"

He put up his hand to let her now that he was on his last nerve and then moved his hands to his temples to ease the throbbing pain from a headache. Rouge got up and got ready to fly her room, sighing.

"Wait." he lowly growled.

Rouge looked at him confused. He was quiet for a moment.

**"Is he going to apologise?"** she assumed.

She doubted that as that was rare from him.

"I'll look into what you said about Rose," he said quietly before he retreated to the kitchen to get himself some water.

**'Good and who knows, maybe you'll learn a thing or two with Amy around.' **Rouge thought to herself while quietly hovering to her room.

* * *

Amy's ears switched at the sound of an incoming motion from behind her so she swiftly turned around and caught the person's hand. Her eyes widened and her heart raced as she laid her eyes on someone that she hadn't expected to see.

"A-amy?" questioned Tails with a small voice.

She swiftly turned around and tried to walk away but he held her wrist to stop her from walking away. She had no choice but to talk. Amy shook his hand away from her wrist and glared hard at him with a nasty look. Tails flinched at her coldness and felt hurt by it.

"You've got the wrong hedgehog," she spoke with a sarcastic tone.

"Oh please," he replied, "Who else wouldn't recognise the 18-year-old...dark pink hedgehog with long quills? In-office uniform? What happened to you, Amy?"

"So nice of you to ask 2 months later," Amy replied, her tone laced with more sarcasm. She had a distant look and a fake smile plastered on her face. Tails was started to become frustrated.

"Look, Amy, let's not make this more difficult than it has to be-"

"It wasn't so difficult to kick me off the team now was it huh?" she retorted.

"Says the bitch who decided to insult our friends when they tried to help her?" he said with an angry smile.

She didn't get to reply because it had caught her off guard. Tails swearing at her?

**'What happened to me, he asks? More like what happened to him after I left?' **Amy thought to herself, hurt and confused.

"You've been off the radar since July, missed some of our friends birthday's didn't even call to tell us that you were okay, or call to apologise—."

"Were you my friend Tails? Or everyone else? What kind of 'friend' would try to apologise almost 2 months later? Why am I supposed to apologise? You called me useless. So I did something useful and left your lives. May I remind you that it was you who kicked me off the team? You called me a Pink Annoyance. Stop playing the victim here because my emotions aren't a game." Amy interrupted while raising her voice.

Tails became startled at Amy's outburst, but he was more hurt than anything. He knew what she was saying was the truth, but was too humiliated to admit it. He looked up to her, setting down his shopping basket on the floorand pointing a finger in her direction with a dark look.

"I guess Sonic was right. You...are the most toxic hedgehog I have ever met." he spat.

Amy felt tears threaten to spring up to her eyes but she shoved them down. She was not ready to let them win. She put her shopping basket down too and walked up to him and jabbed him in the chest.

"Fine Tails." Amy snarled with venom in her voice, "Have fun letting Sonic be your teacher and letting him put bullshit in your brain because clearly, we're not ready to have this conversation. When you're done, I'll lend you some tissues to wipe it and my card to contact my office when you're mentally stable enough to talk to me again."

Amy then threw G.U.N tissues at him and a G.U.N card which landed perfectly in his basket. He widened his eyes and tried to say something to her, obviously feeling bad but she turned hot on her heel, picked up her shopping basket and left.

She then walked around the store picking up washing powder, laundry cleanser, a broomstick, floor wipes, a mop and detergent and other things she needed to clean her room with. Then she paid for her stuff and got out of that store hoping never to see that fox again.

"Have a nice day!" she heard the clerk chirp from behind her.

**"I'll try to."**


	6. 4 Dangerous Emotions

**Location: Westopolis, Team Dark's Residence**

**Time: 4:47pm**

Rouge heard the door slam and it revealed a very wet and pissed off hedgehog. Her makeup ran down her face and her head hung low. Her clothes were soaked to the fur. Amy looked up at Rouge with pain in her jade green eyes and matted fur. Rouge was utterly confused, but she got Amy some makeup removal wipes and a towel to dry her fur. Amy quickly snatched it out of her hands, leaving Rouge shocked.

"Chaos, Amy, what happened?" Rouge asked.

Amy looked up at Rouge and held back tears until her eyes became red. She finally let them fall. She walked back outside under the roof and shook her fur dry, drying the rest with a towel. T

hen she set her shopping bags by the door. She completely ignored Rouge and went to sit down on the couch. Then she finally started to sob heavily.

Rouge joined her and pulled her into a hug, surprisingly. Rouge was not keen with physical interaction but she let her cry into her shoulder. Slowly, Amy raised her head and started to speak between sobs.

"It was two months ago...In July. I was called to Tails' workshop for a meeting. I thought it was something new that Tails developed."

She went silent for a bit, and then Rouge nodded for her to continue.

"When I came inside, everyone greeted me with a smile on their face, even making jokes with me. Yet, I noticed something strange. Sonic and Tails looked especially pained that day and I was wondering if something was wrong..."

"We finally all sat down in the living room. Sonic and Tails had explained that the meeting was concerning me. I was so excited! I thought I was finally getting a promotion instead of standing on the sidelines—" she continued but then started to sob.

"Then they told me that I should take a break from the team...for 2 months. But I knew they may have meant a longer time than that. I was so confused. I had barely done anything to disrupt the group for these past weeks. Then my friends...They _sat _there and said _nothing_ at all. Sonic started to throw insults and they _sat_ there. I knew what Sonic was saying was partially true. Even so, if they were to dismiss me from the team, they shouldn't have done it the way they did."

She then looked up at Rouge.

"Rouge, I found out they were replacing me with Sally Acorn—"

"Wait, What?" Rouge responded, "Isn't she a princess? How is she even allowed to do that?"

"I don't know Rouge. All I know is that my friends sat there and hadn't told me anything. I thought I had gotten stronger than I had ever been. Growing up for 7 years; I was lied to, thinking that my friends had faith in me. I told Sonic about how I truly felt, the emotions I had pent up before they kicked me off the team."

Amy stopped talking and then continued.

"They called me a Pink Annoyance."

"Alright, Amy. That's enough. If they thought that it was acceptable to treat you like that, then they're wrong. I'm visiting them this evening." Rouge stood up.

"I-I don't know where they live anymore..." replied Amy.

Rouge's eyes widened in disbelief.

"So they didn't contact you or apologise?!"

"No. Well, I saw Tails this afternoon at the store."

"What'd he say?!" her baby blue eyes clouded with outrage.

"He said some pretty horrible things like...I didn't even call to apologise and didn't even tell them that I was okay. And that I am the most toxic hedgehog he had ever met. Just because I told him about how I felt about being kicked off the team. WHY IS IT ON ME TO APOLOGISE? WHAT HAVE I DONE EXCEPT AT LEAST TRY TO BE USEFUL?!" she screamed, her fur starting to turn dark pink.

Rouge took a step back, startled and stared at the camera in the living room.

Shadow quickly ran out from eavesdropping in the hallway, trying to process what Amy was explaining to Rouge.

He had always thought of Sonic as an equal, but he was also was an annoying asshole, that Amy was ridiculous for ogling Sonic and further driving his terrible ego. He also knew Amy would snap sometime.

'**Why do I even care? It's none of my business.' **he thought.

Even though he thought that his body continued to move into the living room. He had to calm her down before something bad happened. He approached her slowly and stood over her while she convulsed on the couch. The ground was starting to shake. Shadow was confused but he was not looking forward to having the house destroyed.

"Rose," he called her name.

She didn't reply, she just looked at him with one red eye and painfully gripped his wrist. He quickly grew irritated and Rouge saw this as a cue to move out of the way. Rouge went upstairs and let Shadow handle the situation to retrieve the footage and get ready to go to and find the freedom fighters.

"I'm not going to say it again. So look at me." Shadow growled.

She looked at him, one eye a dark crimson red and the other still a frightened jade green. Her arms violently tensing and her bracelets starting to slip off. Shadow stared closely. If he wasn't wrong, he was sure those weren't bracelets and that they were inhibitor rings.

**'How had I never noticed?' **Shadow asked himself, suddenly feeling silly.

Trying to shake her grip off his wrist, he grabbed her by the shoulder.

"If you know what's good for you, don't you let anger overtake you."

Shadow felt dumb using the same words Rouge would use to calm him down. But he had no choice.

Shadow lightly slapped her. It seemed to be working.

"Snap out of it! I don't want to see you like this." Shadow yelled, which was partially true. It reminded him of his old incompetence.

Amy immediately stopped losing control and slumped into the couch holding her cheek lightly while looking away apologetically. After a few deep breaths, she finally calmed down. She slumped further into the couch and made a whining noise.

"I look pathetic right now Shadow. And I don't want you to see that," she replied quietly, covering her face with her hands. She then stretched and yawned as if nothing happened.

"I feel a lot better Shadow," she stated.

Amy looked at Shadow and smiled genuinely, his heart doing a flip in the process. Shadow didn't like the way Amy was manipulating his feelings. Even so, he looked at her. She felt uncomfortable and stood up before walking over to Shadow and hugging him. He looked up at her, shocked and his arms debating whether to embrace her or not.

"Thank you for helping me Shadow." she sincerely appreciated.

Shadow grunted out his signature, "Hmph." trying to sound cool, but couldn't stop himself from grinning.

"Whatever. We don't need a broken teammate on our team," he replied.

He sighed before she disappeared up the stairs with her shopping bags, leaving him time to think to himself in the living room.

* * *

Amy set down her shopping and slumped against the door. All this drama was causing her fatigue. She stripped out of her office clothes and looked at the time. It was already 5 pm. She had a mission to prepare for and decided to rest up after her shower.

She took her towel and walked out into the hallway. While she walked across the hallway to the bathroom, Amy saw Shadow go downstairs into the briefing room. She followed him downstairs, peeked around the door and saw him typing on the computer. Then he went around the room looking for mission tools and gadgets.

"I should ask Rose if she'd want to use these later..." he mumbled to himself.

Amy thought he was the type to brood in silence, yet here he was, being thoughtful and talking to himself. What had happened to the Ultimate Lifeform while she had been away for all these years?

She tried to sneak around the door while he focused on something on his laptop with his back turned to her. Then he sniffed around in the air for something, Amy's scent.

"And you Rose, should not be eavesdropping." he sternly spoke, his eyes still focused on his screen.

"Don't be a hypocrite," Amy replied, standing in front of the doorway.

Shadow could see Amy's reflection in his laptop screen, so he closed it down quickly and turned around to face her with his eyes closed. Amy was confused.

"If Rouge already walks around the house like this, I don't expect you to do it too," he growled, his muzzle fighting not to turn red.

Amy looked down at herself. She did know whether or not she should have taken that as a compliment, but judging by Rouge's body, she felt a bit of jealousy. She slipped away from the door and walked upstairs to the bathroom, subtly embarrassed. She then closed the door and locked it.

She slipped out of her towel and hung it on the back of the door. Then she turned on the water and looked around for some soap. She found a new lemon-scented soap bar and some clear shampoo that had a flowery smell. She rubbed it into her quills being careful not to cause water damage and then washed her fur and skin. When she was finished, she opened the window to let all the steam out. She then walked over to the door and collected her towel, drying her fur off. She then got a new hairbrush and carefully brushed her quills into a messy bun and applied some lotion to her fur and skin.

She then walked back to her bedroom and put on a black sweatshirt with matching black shorts and took a nap without bothering to put on new bedding.


	7. 5 Sorting Problems

**Location: Central City, Westopolis, G.U.N HQ**

**Time: 7:03 pm**

Rouge quietly walked into the headquarters of G.U.N around 7 pm, smoothing her beige T-shirt down and fixing her black jeans. She decided to wear a simple black converse since she wasn't going to work. It had been a long day and Rouge was hoping to go home and put her feet up with a relaxing bath after all the drama that had presented itself before her.

Rouge knew that the freedom fighters were currently in partnership with G.U.N until the end of the year, but she decided to keep that to herself.

"Coordinates... -634008973, Westopolis, Central City Suburbs." the computer blurted out.

Rouge then sat down and relaxed in her office chair while admiring her dark purple nails before getting started on hacking the camera system at that same supermarket Amy went to. A few stores came up before she figured out which one it was. Then she plugged in her G.U.N phone with a USB cable to transfer the footage.

"Camera 39, Aisle 13." beeped the computer again, "Would you like the sound on, Miss Rouge?"

"Yes please," she replied.

"Processing..." the computer started to download the scene which included Amy and Tails at the store. So if Tails' tried to lie about anything, Rouge had evidence.

She shut down the computer and locked up the rest of the office. Then she walked past the quiet floors who were finishing up their work for the day and some sweaty teenage agents from their mission out.

She borrowed a G.U.N motorbike to give the freedom fighters a taste of their own medicine. Pain. Rouge smirked with her shiny red lipgloss before driving off.

* * *

**Location: Westopolis, Team Dark's Residence**

**Time: 7:26pm**

Any woke up slowly and looked at the clock, it was 7 pm. She felt like falling asleep again but then realised that she had a room to clean and a mission to prepare for.

She swung herselout of her bed while stretching and yawning before reaching into her shopping bacg. Then she dusted the whole room.

"Achoo!" she rubbed her nose, irritated from the dust.

She then continued cleaning the room, vacuuming the dust off the floor and mopping the floor. She then pushed the bed into the corner of her room away from the window, put the closet opposite the bed which was next to the door and put her dresser next to the window. The room was now a bit tidier.

She unpacked some of her clothes away into the closet and the drawers of her dresser which were some of her G.U.N uniforms, her training clothes and some comfy house clothes. During her time as an apprentice, she was paid very little and had to eat their food, which was very nice but very expensive. And she only had money to buy what she needed and not what she wanted. She only had 1 nice autumn outfit that she had once borrowed from Blaze.

She then pulled out her laptop to prepare for the upcoming mission and reluctantly got to work.

"I see you're awake now." a deep voice rang through the room.

"And you Mr the Hedgehog should not be eavesdropping." Amy smugly replied, eyes never leaving the screen.

"Please steer clear of my lines. I don't need another faker in my life." Shadow retorted, trying to attempt at a joke.

Amy looked up at him in shock. Was this Shadow? Had someone replaced him or had Rouge drugged him?

"Shadow—" Amy started but was cut off by his hand gently shutting the laptop off.

"Hey! I had worked on that—"

"If you're going to be on our team, be more observant." Shadow interrupted.

Amy looked at him confused. He sighed, slowly becoming irritated with her slowness.

"Why do you think I was on my laptop earlier?" he asked.

'**Oh, that makes sense. Does Rouge know this?' **Amy Amy thought to herself. She decided to ask.

"But what about—"

"We're going to do things _my way_ tomorrow, I want to see if you prove worthy enough to be on our team," he said nonchalantly.

"Okay okay, no. Who the hell are you and what have you done with Shadow?" Amy interposed, utterly confused. She got up and jabbed Shadow gently on the chest. He was subtly shocked and confused.

**'What is this hedgehog talking about?' **Shadow asked himself.

Amy continued talking.

"From the last time I saw you, you barely talked, hated everyone around you, wanted nothing to do with mobian interaction other than your own team, concentrated on uncovering your past and hell bent on trying to destroying the earth. So what happened to you?"

Shadow was starting to get irritated. Amy was talking as if she had him all figured out. Was this what everyone outside of his team thought of him?

"That was a few years ago Rose. Unfortunately, people change for their reasons." Shadow stated. He didn't want to remind himself of his old self.

Any's brows furrowed in confusion at his comment. Shadow decided to give Amy an example, which was herself.

He lightly slapped Amy's hand away which had a finger poked into his chest fur and walked towards Amy. She walked backwards until her back hit the wall. He had her cornered.

"I should be asking you the same thing. 5 or 6 years ago, I saw a tiny little 13-year-old trying to figure out what life was, chasing after something she couldn't have and now she shows up tanned and almost grown-up. Swearing even. What happened to that hammer swinging nuisance we saw a few years ago?"

Amy felt weak and didn't have anything to say, just staring into his eyes as he spoke the truth. She now understood how he felt when she asked all those questions. Shadow continued.

"You went through a lot of phases. You went from being dependent on Sonic to becoming an independent person who cares about others' safety. Then you also went through a _very_ unlikable phase. Now is the point in time when time flies by and you realise what your purpose is and what you're truly capable of."

She felt an embarrassed blush creep onto her face.

**'Who the hell does this hedgehog think he is?' **Amy asked herself.

She cleared her throat while waiting for him to continue speaking. Suddenly, Shadow had realised their position and moved away from her while looking down at the floor with his hands in his pockets.

"Don't confuse physical strength with emotional strength." he bluntly stated and left it at that. She tried to break it down.

"So don't judge someone's overall strength by what you see on the outside, but take the time to read them," she mumbled.

Shadow sighed. He had things to do instead of worrying about his past self.

"If you're still wondering about what happened to me then I'd suggest that you don't worry about it," he muttered.

Then he left the room without a word.

"Guess you're not much of an Edge lord as I thought, huh?" Amy mumbled to herself.

That hedgehog was one unreadable book.

* * *

**Location: Westopolis, Tails' Workshop/Residence**

**Time: 8:00 pm**

The gang were invited over by Sonic at Tails' workshop to hang out. A mini party to relax from another busy day of crime-fighting.

Tails walked in with a lot of shopping while Cream dragged Blaze away from Silver to serve the extra food that Tails' had gone out and bought, Vector and Silver were playing Twister, Knuckles was beating Charmy for putting a ping pong ball into his drink and Sally just sat back and observed everything while sipping some soda.

"Sonic, I saw Amy at the store today." Tails angrily stated. Sonic was interested but saw Sally coming to the kitchen for another drink. He shouted to Tails over the music.

"Tails, I don't want to hear anything about her, please." Sonic replied.

Tails became annoyed. Sonic couldn't keep avoiding things forever. Just as Tails was about to continue, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Tails sighed, thinking it was charmy up to his tricks again.

**'Hah. Saved by the bell.' **Sonic triumphantly thought.

He turned around to pour Sally and himself another drink.

Suddenly, everything went silent and the music wasn't playing anymore. Sonic whipped his head around and saw that it was Rouge.

'**How did she know where he lived?**' he asked himself, suddenly confused. Nonetheless, he decided to greet her.

"Hey there, Rouge," Sonic greeted, "What brings you here?"

She stayed silent and made eye contact with nobody.

"Well? Did Amy go crying to you or something?" Tails snarled.

The Freedom Fighters looked over to Tails, it seemed like her knew what was going on.

"Wait. Can somebody tell me what's going on here?" Sonic pleaded.

"I thought you didn't want to hear it Sonic." Tails retorted. Sonic just rolled his eyes while Sally was staring at him confused.

"Oh, so I was right, nobody knows then," replied Rouge with a bitter tone.

She turned to Tails and continued.

"Tails, she didn't exactly cry. However, you might want to tell everyone how your encounter today with Amy went since you were the one who brought it up." she continued.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." he stuttered, not wanting the others to hear what he had said to Amy.

"Oh really? You being a genius, I thought you'd be better at figuring out how to avoid security cameras." she snarkily replied.

Rouge took out her phone and played a video of Amy and Tails shouting at each other. They had heard the whole conversation.

Sonic felt a pang of guilt but pushed it down as rage flared throughout his body. Why was he still the bad guy in all of this? He was supposed to be the hero, he had no time for love problems. He was supposed to be saving the world, saving people—

"How dare you walk into here as if you own the place and challenge us?" spoke Espio, snapping Sonic out of his thoughts.

"I don't listen to hypocrisy," began Rouge, eyeing Tails, "If you guys want to see what you've done to Amy, then here's a video."

The gang looked at Rouge's phone again and saw Amy convulsing on a couch, screaming and turning something that looked like dark Sonic. Sonic's heart sank, but his pride refused to let him admit the truth. He didn't want to feel responsible for making Amy feel that way.

"You guys stripped her of her emotional strength the day you let her down. She lost trust in people and heck she even came running to G.U.N headquarters for some company from us, 'so-called' ex-villans."

"G.U.N?" Sonic questioned.

'**So that's where she disappeared to.' **Sonic realised.

Sonic did not want to let his pride be wounded. Not in front of everyone like this.

"Listen Rouge. In the first place, Amy shouldn't have reacted to Tails like that when he was just trying to talk to her. Let's be honest, Amy isn't the only one that has problems in the world, so that is what you all need to understand. Maybe if she had come and apologised and stepped up her game, matured or asked us back for a place on the team, we would've let her come back." Sonic stated.

"Sorry, Sonic? Why should she come crawling and begging back to you? Is your ego that lost? Did you see the way Tails talked to Amy? Amy lost her trust in you guys, may I remind you. Stop acting as if you're not in the wrong either. I can't believe that you, as the so-called freedom fighters didn't bother to call a friend back after you could see they were hurting. Instead, you turned a blind eye on that person and wanted nothing to do with them. Have you seen what happened to Amy? She's probably worse than dark Sonic, so you need to re-think what you're saying."

**"Worse than Dark Sonic...? Was Rouge implying that Amy had possibly? No, Impossible."** Sonic asked himself.

Maybe he had let this go a little too far. Suddenly, Tails had an outburst.

"No, Rouge!" Tails retorted, "Amy needs to realise that she can't be childish forever and needs to grow up. Heck, even Cream got the message and even she matured earlier than Amy! So I suggest you leave—" Tails retorted but stopped short after Cream gripped his wrist very tightly.

"That's enough." Cream spoke up with an unreadable expression. After a long silence, Rouge cleared her throat and spoke up.

"You replaced her with Sally Acorn. On top of distancing Amy, you also were too blinded by someone _else _on the team to truly see the loyalty Amy kept to the team. She tried her very best with everyone. The last straw was destroying her emotionally by what you did."

"It's going to take a long while for you people to realise what you had lost."

* * *

Hello guys! Hope you enjoyed the bonding moment between Shadow and Amy. And do you think Rouge was right to do what she did? Let me know with your amazing reviews! I also want to say a big thank you to **Nebula the Hedgehog** and others for helping Author-Chan improve my stories. I truly appreciate it.

I also want to thank you for 1.1k reads, that's Amazing! Thank you very much. See you until the next chapter!


	8. 6 Bonding and Wondering

Sonic saw it. A blurry vision of a light pink hedgehog with black, empty and soulless eyes. Wearing a red dress but with a black and red hammer. An aura emitting from her. Smiling emptily at Sonic, mumbling something. For one of the rare times in his life, Sonic was scared. He, Sonic T. Hedgehog was truly and utterly scared. He felt himself being pulled towards the creature. She then spoke.

_"Ha. You thought it'd be that easy to replace me huh?"_

Sonic tried to look everywhere else other than her but she was everywhere. His heart pounded out of his chest. He desperately opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.

_"This is what you've done to me Sonic,"_ she stated. Then she erupted into an empty laugh.

_"You had responsibilities Sonic. And you attended to those right away, such as saving the world. That's what makes you everyone's hero... But what about you Sonic? Who's your hero?"_

His mind went blank as he thought about it.

_"You support justice, Sonic. But what justice have you done to me?"_ she blankly looked at her hands.

He tried to open his mouth once more. This time he couldn't even move his body. He was struggling to breathe. The light pink hedgehog moved over to him and cornered him. Then she put her finger underneath his chin, caressed it and lifted it to make him look at her.

_"You went on about your life for 2 months...and **emotionally damaged** me."_

She abruptly dropped his head and slapped him hard across the face. The pain caused him to open mouth in a silent scream as he flew across the room. She laughed in satisfaction.

_"This doesn't even compare to the pain you put me through, so don't even."_

She picked him up by a bunch of his quills and threw him across the floor. She looked at him with so much disgust; Eggman would be jealous.

_"You have very little time to figure out the difference between my loyalty and other's unfaithfulness," she said while floating to another side of the white room that seemed endless._

Sonic's face scrunched up, confused. She smirked.

_"Oh? You don't know who I'm talking about? Where was that so-called girlfriend of yours when you felt alone, had nobody to talk to and didn't have a place to stay?"_

She was talking about Sally. Was this Amy? Sonic didn't have time to think.

_"Otherwise asking for forgiveness would be too late. Loving your ego so much means not taking real responsibilities for your actions. If you continue to ignore your blinded conscience, you're just **begging** for me to come after you."_

She looked at Sonic with that empty smile again before continuing.

_"Realise your mistake Sonic T. Hedgehog, because time is ticking."_

* * *

**_Wednesday 13th September_**

**Location: Westopolis, Central City, T****ails' workshop/ Residence**

**6:37 am**

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SONIC WAKE UP!" Tails screamed, tired of shaking the sweaty cobalt hedgehog. He finally jolted out of his sleep.

"Huh...?" Sonic looked around dazed before getting up to try and run. Tails just shook his head at the poor guy.

"This is why you don't sleep on a rooftop Sonic, for God's sake. I bet you have a cold now, sleeping out here in this cold autumn wind."

"I do _not_!" he protested while covering a sniffle up.

"Just go inside already, I don't wanna catch what you're catching." Tail's sighed and ushered Sonic to the roof's exit.

Tails stayed outside on the rooftop and decided to climb over onto the hammock. It was a surprisingly sunny morning so the wind wasn't that cold.

"Tails, we haven't finished talking." a voice stated.

"Huh? Oh, Cream...sorry. What were you saying?"

She placed her hands on her slightly curved hip before looking down at Tails, unamused. She was not happy with what went down last night.

"I said, what you said last night was unacceptable."

She looked everywhere else than me but she looked like she had something to say.

"And although I don't fully agree with Amy, now that I'm 13, I should've said something before she left. She probably thinks I've betrayed her. Do you know why?"

She paused and began again.

"Because I didn't want to be kicked off the team. That's what I thought months ago. It was very selfish of me. I also don't agree with Amy for joining G.U.N, what was she thinking? Does she know how difficult that company has been towards our team lately? Even if they do pay us extra for minimising our work for us, they've been very annoying about how we've been slacking. I'm tired of taking missions from them because we never used to. We've been doing our best and now, they want us to go on a mission today."

Tails walked up to Cream and put both his hands on her shoulders.

"Cream, I'm sorry about what I said last night. I shouldn't have compared Amy to you, it wasn't nice at all. Something weird happened to Sonic, though. He was screaming Amy's name in his sleep and I need to get to the bottom of it. Anyway, you should get ready for the mission today."

"Okay. But remember what I said Tails. Think about what you do and say, you're just making things worse-"

"I know what I'm doing, Cream. Amy plays a part in this too."

Cream hugged Tails and left looking worried. Everyone had messed up, big time.

* * *

**Location: Team Dark's Residence, Westopolis**

**Time: 6:45 am**

Shadow, Omega and Rouge roamed around the house looking for Amy. He told her that they had to be up at 6 am and she hadn't come out of her room. When they peered inside, she was nowhere to be seen. So much for her first day.

"Maybe she went to work early Shadow, remember not all of her stuff has been moved out from her Recruit Room-"

Rouge's ears stuck up in realisation.

"Or maybe I have an idea of where she is."

She got her communicator and linked it to Amy's.

"Ally 4's location, Central City Isle. HQ." it beeped.

"Zoom in," Rouge replied.

"Gym area."

Rouge's eyes widened in shock. Why was she there?

"How long has Ally 4 been at that location?"

"Since 2 am."

Shadow huffed and decided to print the mission plan off his laptop, some tools and threw it all in his bag. Normally, he'd like to travel light, but it looked like Amy hadn't taken anything with her since her mission backpack was still here.

Shadow revved his motorcycle up and within 8 minutes and a bunch of shortcuts, he stumbled into the HQ. Then he charged up to the gymnasium. He indeed saw Amy there, on her own and it looked like she was training for today's mission. As he watched her stop to take a water break, she took a look outside and started talking to herself.

"Why do things always end up this way?" she sighed. "It's like life just repeats itself. I still love Sonic, but something's off."

After she stopped talking Shadow mentally facepalmed. Why didn't he immediately go inside and tell her to get out? He didn't usually care about other mobian's issues. This hedgehog was starting to have an impact on him and he didn't like it.

She kept looking out of the window but then she did something strange. She stuck out her ass and curved her back slightly. Shadow slightly flinched and covered his eyes, knowing what she was doing.

"If you knew I was standing there all that time, why didn't you say something?" he hissed, clearly pissed off.

"If you knew we had a mission to do and that I was late, why didn't you say something?" she countered back.

"Listen here Rose," he growled, walking towards her, "Never, ever do that again."

She looked like she was trying to hold in a laugh. And it made him pop a vein.

"Eavesdroppers get punished, Shadow."

Shadow just rolled his eyes and shoved the bag of equipment at her. She frowned at the rude action but smiled when she realised what he was trying to do.

"Aww Shaddy, just for me~?" Amy teased, "You're such a sweetheart."

Shadow just glanced over at her in annoyance. But had a blush over his muzzle which annoyed him even more. She was embarrassing him.

"We don't have time for this, get showered and ready in 10 minutes, newbie." Shadow spat.

Amy's eyebrow curved with a smirk on her face. She had gotten to him. She then walked off with staring at the inhibitor rings on her wrist. She never took them off before going into the shower or going to bed which meant she probably knew they are inhibitor rings, Shadow thought.

Suddenly, Amy turned around and caught him staring.

"Shadow, why are you looking at my bracelets like that?" she inquired, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"You know very well that those aren't bracelets," he replied darkly.

Amy looked to the exit of the room. She wanted to leave this conversation immediately.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," she replied quietly.

"You know very well what I'm talking about." Shadow whisper-shouted. "Why are you hiding this Rose?"

She didn't reply, so he moved closer to her. She started to look over his shoulder.

**'Probably to divert my attention.'** he thought. But he wasn't falling for it.

"What are you trying to hide?"

"Shadow, please refrain from interrogating Ally 4, Amy Rose is experiencing high levels of discomfort." Omega beeped from behind us.

Shadow grunted at the robot. He forgot that he could now detect somebody's emotions by analysing them. He stepped out of Amy's pathway and watched as Amy darted for the door.

* * *

(**With the Freedom Fighters.)**

**6:54 am**

As Sonic got downstairs he shook in a cold sweat. He didn't know if he should explain what was going on to Tails. Then, the realisation of something dawned on him. All of the drama occurring made him forget to get ready for this mission today. He ran down the stairs just to see the gang chatting calmly waiting for him. Yet he didn't have time to stop his outburst. He didn't know what time it was.

"Oh dang, the mission!" he exclaimed.

The Freedom Fighters looked at him in confusion.

"Sonic, we're all ready, so calm down," replied Sally.

"But we were meant to leave at 7:30 am!" he exclaimed and looked at the clock.

"It's 6:54 am, Sonic, you can stop yelling." chuckled Tails.

Sonic sighed in exasperation. He wasn't in the mood for anything today.

"Tails..." Sonic began, " We need to talk."

"B-but...what about the mission?" Tails pleaded while being dragged away.

It fell on deaf ears as the rest of the gang shook their heads in pity.

Sonic and Tails walked into the garage where Tails had a certain machine set up. Sonic lay down on the bed underneath the overhanging machine. Tails sweatdropped nervously and hesitated a little bit.

"Sonic...I wouldn't recommend this while going on a mission today-"

"Tails, just do it." Sonic snapped unconsciously, " I need you to observe the dream I had last night."

"Sonic...You'll be excruciatingly pained and tired on your mission today if you do this," Tails warned him.

"I know." he replied, "You need to see this, I don't know what this dream is trying to tell me."

"Fine." Tail's sighed.

He turned on the machine and put the machine over Sonic's head while Sonic drifted off into his sleep again. Sonic thrashed about on the bed as he relived that disgusting nightmare. Tails quickly turned off the simulation, he had seen enough.

Sonic jolted out of his sleep and started trembling violently. Tails held him by the arms to try and calm Sonic down until he seized his movement. Then Sonic looked up at him. It was very awkward. Tails wanted to leave the room so that he had time to think.

"We'll talk about this later Sonic, right now we got a mission to do. But let's grab breakfast first." Tails mumbled. He left the room and walked upstairs. Sonic left and went upstairs, most likely taking a shower and getting his equipment bag for the day.

Tails looked up at the clock. The time showed 7:10 am.

Was today going to be another long day?

* * *

**Location: Brownstone Cafe, Westopolis High Street**

**Time: 7:42 am**

Team Dark walked to the cafe near the HQ. Rouge and Shadow walked and were talking about Amy. Amy walked with Omega who intensely stared at her. He started buzzing after a while.

"Amelia Franklin Rosette, Ally 4-." he spoke in his monotone voice.

"-Omega, please just refer to me with the name Amy," Amy spoke, shaking her head.

"Processing..."

Amy smiled warmly at the bonding moment until he spoke again.

"Amy Rose. I wish to request some information from you. Do you comply?"

"Omega, are you asking to ask me a question?" Amy chuckled. He was so formal. Maybe Team Dark was very private and asked Omega to ask first before asking personal questions.

Omega buzzed for a moment.

"I understand. Requesting information is the same as the term called a question."

Amy nodded.

"What is it Omega?"

"Why did you join this team?"

Amy looked at him in surprise. She wasn't expecting the robot to sympathise with her. However, she could give him a simple answer.

"Sometimes, you've got to explore to find your real friends Omega."

Omega was silent as he processed the info.

"Noted. So you think that Rouge and Shadow are your real friends?"

Amy looked at him, hesitant. She looked around for Shadow and Rouge. They were still in front talking with Rouge teasing him.

"If they let me get closer with them, I wouldn't mind being friends with them. You too Omega, you're a friend."

"I can't be friends with a mobian, I'm a robot," he stated.

Amy lunged forward and hugged Omega gently. He returned the gesture. She flinched a little from the cold metal coming into contact with her fur, yet she warmly smiled as she knew Omega was trying to be gentle.

"Hug, a gesture of holding someone tightly in one's arms, typically to express affection," replied Omega.

"It doesn't matter who you are, you can still be friends with anyone. Don't let anyone say otherwise." Amy spoke.

A voice rang throughout the seemingly quiet road.

"Ahem. If you're done with your moment, would you like to come inside?" Shadow spoke, clearing his throat.

Amy blushed and glared at him. How dare he try to take advantage of this? He lightly flinched at her glare, but Amy did not notice.

"Are you alright, Shadow?" Omega began.

Shadow looked at Omega with a nasty look before doing his signature "Hmph."

Team Dark walked inside of Brownstone Cafe and ordered some food to take out. Everyone except for Shadow and Omega. Rouge ordered a vanilla latte and a croissant while Amy ordered a caramel mocha and a cheese sandwich. Amy then looked over at Shadow but he avoided her gaze.

"Oh c'mon Shadow, eat something." Rouge pleaded.

"I am the Ultimate lifeform. Why would I buy something to eat? It's a waste of rings." he replied.

'That's it' Amy thought. He was going to do her head in. When was he going to stop acting so modest? It was bad for his health.

Amy brushed the crumbs off her black training shorts and purchased a strawberry-filled croissant. Then she shoved the bag in his face. The look on his face darkened and he opened his mouth to protest, but Amy shut him up. She closed her eyes firmly and put her hand up.

"No Shadow, I'm not going to have your_ stubborn ass_ distract me with your stomach grumbling while we work on this mission. I don't _care_ if you're choosing to ignore it. Get this shit in your mouth and eat it or I'll shove it in there myself." Amy yelled, getting the attention of other customers and poking him in the chest.

He took her roughly by the arm and dragged her outside. A blush painted on his muzzle, he looked taken aback and a bit embarrassed. She was reminding him of his old incompetence. Not wanting to go back to being that person, he cleared his throat to reply.

"I suppose that would be a little distracting, considering I have the body of a mobian." he reluctantly admitted. Rouge and Omega came outside and they left the shop, walking over to their motorcycles. As they were putting on their helmets, they heard a familiar voice.


	9. 7 Opening Wounds and Memories

**Location: Westopolis High Street, Brownstone Cafe**

**Time: 8:23 am**

The Freedom Fighters didn't have time for breakfast today. Everyone was excited because they hadn't been out on a mission in a long while, so they chattered as they walked to the cafe near the headquarters. They needed to go to the HQ to get a mission plan since G.U.N did minimise their work for them. So because they were hungry, they decided to stop by the cafe. As they turned the corner to the entrance of the cafe, they saw a flash of pink pass them by on a motorcycle. Then they saw Rouge, Shadow and Omega. Rouge and Shadow were putting on their helmets while Omega was currently flying. Sonic decided to take it upon himself to greet them, especially Shadow after not seeing them properly for a couple of years. Putting aside the events from last night, he spoke.

"Hey, guys-!" he started.

"Don't hey us, Sonic." Rouge bitterly replied.

"What? Am I not allowed to greet old friends?" he chirped.

Shadow just looked at him with disgust. He wasn't in the mood after Amy had just scolded and embarrassed him. Furthermore, Sonic was the reason Amy was with them in the first place. Shadow stared intently at Sally while replying to Sonic.

"Faker," Shadow replied, warning him with the tone of his voice. "I'd advise you to stop."

Sonic faltered seeing that they were serious. After a long period of silence, they finally got on their bikes and disappeared. The Freedom Fighters stared those two down before walking into the café.

As they waiting in the long line to order, Sonic was in deep thought as to why they were dressed as though they were heading out on a mission. In the back of his mind, he wanted to believe that it was coincidental and that he could have the chance to at least see Amy again after two months. His eyes shifted over to Sally who was chatting idly on the phone to her father who constantly made sure she was okay. The idea of seeing Amy again probably wouldn't sit well with Sally, Sonic thought.

They quickly ordered their breakfast from the cafe and collected their mission plan, equipment and other needs for their mission from the HQ. Then they quickly walked back to Tails' workshop over to the X-Tornado. Tails had worked on it over the past 6 years.

Now, it was big enough for all of them to fit inside and it looked a little bit like the battleship they used in space. It had a bit of a homey feeling to it with bedrooms, showers, a kitchen, toilets and much more.

Sonic took two more bites out of his chilli dog before putting it away and taking a sip of his coffee, feeling a little uncomfortable because he would be cooped up in that space for 30 minutes.

Tails, however, was looking a bit uncomfortable himself. There was a fear in his eyes. He had a strong feeling that that demon was Amy. And for the first time in his life, he didn't know if it was going to happen or how to stop it. Uncertainty carried danger with it.

Tails snapped out of his thoughts again as the trees and other things on the runway behind his workshop parted and they safely took off.

Cream and Charmy looked relaxed as they shared headphones and laughed at something on her phone. It caused Tails to stare at her in the rearview mirror in wonder. Vector and Espio were busy playing cards and arguing with each other, Espio looking like he loved taking the piss out of the situation. Sally was looking out of the window, smiling and waving to everyone who could see her below. Sonic stared at her, intrigued at how captivating and confident she was. Knuckles, on the other hand, was busy glaring at her.

"We're not here for fame, you know." he lowly growled.

Sally turned around gracefully, slowly peering underneath her long lashes and her ocean eyes with her glossed lips, while looked taken aback. She wore a simple black tee with navy leggings and black trainers.

"I'm the princess, so it's polite that I'd wave back," she replied, trying to defend herself.

Knuckles growled, "Y'know, I kind of miss Amy sometimes." he whispered loud enough for Sally to hear. And she drooped her ears in uncomfort.

Everyone looked over to Amy's old seat which everybody usually ignored or avoided. Tension hung thick in the air.

"That's enough Knuckles." Silver cut in, "You're going to have to get used to having somebody better on our team."

Blaze nodding her head in agreement and resting her head on his shoulder. She also spoke.

"We _are_ adults now, well _some _of us, no more of this childishness, I suppose. _I'd rather not remind myself of that though_," she said quietly uttering those last sentences.

Knuckles stared them down and gave them him eyeroll.

"Somebody "better"? Amy looked up to you as a big brother. Who's been there for us for the longest while, huh? Sally or Amy? Y'know, it'd be better if _you_ talked this out with Amy _1_ on _1_, Sonic. This needs to stop," Knuckles bitterly replied. He was disappointed with his friends' behaviour but mostly disappointed with himself for letting it get to this point.

Sonic huffed in annoyance and continued that painful 20 minutes of staying still for the rest of that Journey. He knew Knuckles was right, he just refused to admit it.

* * *

**Location: ****Cryptic Castle Base, Central City Outskirts.**

**Time: 9:57 am**

Rouge stared at Amy's inhibitor rings in wonder. Shadow had got her intrigued this time. He had a conversation with her about Amy this morning.

**_Flashback_**

_Rouge decided that she wanted to talk to Shadow about what happened after she left to talk to the freedom fighters. So as they were walking to the cafe, she dragged him ahead. Amy tried to catch up to them, but Rouge signalled with her eyes that she wanted to talk to him alone._

**_"Shadow, what happened last night? I came home to find you watching over Amy as she was sleeping. What kind of love story are you two playing at?" she asked in concern._**

_Shadow just looked over at her in annoyance. Why was she trying to tease him and be serious at the same time?_

**_"Just to clarify, it's not a love story. I was checking to see if she didn't go crazy again and try to blow up our house in case we left her alone."_**

_Which reminded him...should he tell Rouge about Amy's inhibitor rings? He trusted her not to say anything, yet Rouge was one who liked to TAKE and study jewellery. Her voice snapped her out of his thoughts._

**_"You could have just slept next to her Mr Romeo and saved yourself the trouble of being tired on this mission."_**

_Shadow grunted, what a joke. Sleeping with Rose? When was that ever going to happen? Strangely, he found himself getting lost and curious at the thought. Realising he had gone quiet for too long, he spoke._

**_"Rouge, the bracelets on Amy's wrists aren't bracelets, they're inhibitor rings, so take this seriously." Shadow hissed._**

_Rouge's eyes widened. Why would Amy of all people have those? What kind of power would she need to keep in check? And worst of all, did Amy even know about it? Amy never took them off when she went to sleep or shower yet acted as if they were completely normal bracelets._

**_"I see...we'll continue this conversation later," replied Rouge._**

**_Flashback Ended_**

Rouge snapped out of her thoughts as she knew that she had to concentrate on the mission. But first, why not stir up a little trouble.

"Alright, Agents!" Rouge started, flapping her wings a little with enthusiasm, as she started to hover in the air. "We are going to need some teamwork for this stupid mission."

Shadow rolled his eyes, knew where this was going and opened his mouth to protest. Rouge slyly smiled.

"I'm going to team up with Omega." she continued.

Amy's face turned into horror. She opened her mouth to retort, but Rouge silenced her. Amy knew that if she was to work with Shadow, there would be a lot of disagreements and time wasted. Rouge thought that this was an opportunity to improve those things from happening by letting them work together, but they saw it differently. Rouge was playing her little games again.

"Sorry newbie, no buts allowed." Rouge taunted with a wink before flying off with Omega in pursuit, leaving the other two agents to be.

As soon as she reached the wall next to the base, she put on a slick gel on her fur. and rubbed it in. That way none of her hairs would fall off and leave any clues. The cliche thing was also to wear gloves but instead, she put that gel on her hands and used digital software to create manually made gloves. It adjusted to the shape of her hands. Lastly, she put on a mask in case the water vapour from her mouth left traces of her DNA behind. She was wearing a black battle jumpsuit, a black hoodie and black action boots. She was skilled enough to move around in those boots without a problem.

"Give me the layout of this place," she whispered to Omega, who transferred the data to her arm-band device.

"Processing Complete." he beeped, "It seems as if this place has been abandoned."

He showed her a hologram of the place. It was abandoned alright.

"For how long?" she asked.

"Collect data from a tree."

Rouge looked around for a tree stump. Omega scanned it and sent the data to the device.

"The tree rings calculate to 3 years."

Hm. No time for the math she thought. She doubted the systems could still be activated. She told Omega to scan the hologram and predict if the electrical system was still in use and she didn't get a straight answer. They would have to be careful.

Rouge put her Bluetooth headset to hide in her ear and connected her device to her comrade's devices. Then she tapped in a message to tell them to put on their headsets.

"Agents?" she tested.

There was a bit of a beeping noise before she connected. They were having an interesting conversation.

* * *

Shadow munched on his Crossaint while Amy was waiting for a signal on her earpiece. Shadow was waiting for something on his arm device. They were sat on G.U.N cloth trying to hide in the bushes since it was bright in the morning. This mission would have been more ideal at night time.

Shadow then licked his lips to moisten them again and Amy saw a tongue piercing. Shadow the hedgehog with a tongue piercing...?

"Rose."

Amy yelped and scooted a little further away from him, blushing.

"W-what Shadow? What do you want from me this time?" she asked exasperated.

Shadow frowned in confusion but then maintained his serious composure. Why was she acting so strange today? Amy was staring at his tongue piercing as he licked his lips again.

"If anyone should be staring, it should be me," he replied.

"What..?" she questioned. She had gotten caught staring at his piercing.

Shadow moved forward and brushed the crumbs off of her face. She had gotten them all over her and hadn't paid attention.

"You look stupid with them on your face." he nonchalantly spoke.

Amy frowned, taking it as an insult but then realised it was Shadow's way of showing that he cared.

"Your way of sympathy is very interesting, huh?" Amy questioned.

Shadow was dumbfounded.

"What do you mean? When was I showing sympathy?" he replied. What was she trying to imply?

"You said I looked stupid with the crumbs on my face, which means you don't want me to look stupid right?" she spoke, twirling a quill from one of her pigtails in her finger, her muzzle painted red.

Shadow glared at her. Technically speaking, she was correct. And the worst thing was is that he did it on impulse.

"Aww that means you care about me, right shadow?" she said, poking him gently in his right arm.

That's it, Shadow thought. Just like Rouge, Amy was taking advantage of the situation. Not only that but with her so close, her scent was entering his nose. She started to play with his chest fur. It was dangerous. Shadow closed his eyes and was on the verge of a purr. He was NOT going to purr in front of Amy. Even though the sound did not come out, Amy felt the vibration and timidly scooted away. What the hell did she just do? Shadow opened his eyes and distanced himself from her, avoiding eye contact.

"Sh-shadow, did you just-?!" Amy asked but was stopped short by Shadow.

"Rouge sent a message to us asking for us to turn our headsets on." he snapped, avoiding the subject.

Amy flinched as she turned hers on. She could tell he was mad, but it seemed he wasn't mad at her. She would have time to figure it out later.

"Alright Agents." Rouge beeped into their headsets. She would subtly tell them that she had heard their whole conversation. Still, they were silent, waiting for her to continue.

"If you're done with your little _moment_ I'm ready to start the mission."


	10. 8 Shared Fear

**Location: Cryptic Castle Base, Central City Outskirts.**

**10:03 am**

As Tails pulled in to land, he was searching for a space in the trees that would allow his aircraft to land. Everyone had buckled up and put their seatbelts into their socket to prepare for landing. In case of an emergency, full awareness was needed. Then, Tails received a beeping on his radar. It was to notify him that there was a space clear of trees and flat land to land on but instead, it told him that other people were there. That's strange, he thought. G.U.N had only issued the mission to them.

**'So who else could be here?' **Tails thought to himself.

"Hm...We've got company," he stated.

He then gasped loudly and started losing his focus for a split second. This caused the airship to tremor and lose a LOT of altitudes. The company was none other than Team Dark.

Seeing that he had lost control of the aircraft, his friends' lives were in his hands, Tails became frustrated. Everyone either shrieked and exploded into panicked talking or tried to get up to ask him if he was okay. The panicked and frantic talking frustrated him even was he supposed to concentrate under this amount of pressure?

"SIT DOWN, I NEED FULL CONCENTRATION- TO LAND THIS AIRCRAFT SAFELY AT THIS ALTITUDE!"

Everything went silent and people quickly sat down after hearing an enraged Tails. After about 2 minutes, they made a bumpy landing on flat rocks next to a river. Everybody made their way off the aircraft slowly and silently. Tails gave them a lengthy, serious word after that. He was unimpressed.

"I'm sorry that I lost focus and that I wasn't focusing, however...The company we have is none other than Team Dark. I know that isn't an apology, but I make mistakes too. Reactions like that could panic me and cause something lethal to happen. We are already qualified in emergencies, don't have that panicked reaction again, please." he seethed.

Everything was very awkward after that. Nobody wanted to speak or take responsibility for what happened. Sonic, on the other hand, hearing that Team Dark had arrived, had other ideas.

"Great!" Sonic intervened, "Now that that's taken care of, we should complete the mission first rather than waste time with undesired reunions."

"Sonic." Knuckles stated. There was a hint of warning in his voice. He stood with Cream standing next to him, they both looked unamused. Sonic did not hesitate with his decision.

"As your leader, that's an order."

Knuckles shot Sonic an eyeroll. One that hinted he wouldn't follow the order anyway.

"Whatever," Knuckles lowly muttered.

Knuckles was seriously pissed off with the way everyone was behaving today. And he couldn't wait for the opportunity to beat some sense into Sonic.

* * *

As soon as Amy saw that ship, blood turned from her colourless muzzle. Amy still had feelings for him. Well, that's what her heart kept telling her. She wasn't certain if she was supposed to listen to her head or her heart at this point.

Rouge chuckled lowly through the communicator. She grinned cunningly before giving Team Dark a short debrief of the mission.

"There's a change of plan." she slowly spoke. Amy questioned what she was talking about while Shadow grunted unhappily with his plan being discarded, "Use the magnetic shoes to stick to the metal wall and climb upwards and into the second air vent on your left. Use the powered fan to hover upwards and take the first exit to your right once you get to the top. We're going to do this the old fashioned way. Once you get in there, Omega and I will meet you on the other side of the vent."

Amy's veins twitched in anger. Was she trying to get them killed, she thought. Amy knew Rouge was testing her right from the word magnetic.

"Noted." Amy quickly muttered and turned off the communicator.

As Amy saw Shadow trying to take out those magnetic boots, she frowned down at him.

"What?" he said with an impassive look.

"Don't play dumb with me." Amy groaned.

He raised one eyebrow before putting the boots back. Amy just rolled her eyes and brought out a bungee gum rope. She stepped back, then threw it upwards, slapped it against the wall and then pulled it for tension.

You couldn't detect it but it was a long line of sticky-but-not-too-sticky line of bungee styled gum that stuck to the wall and you could climb with your body in a level position without feeling uncomfortable. You just had to climb it like you were climbing a rock-climbing wall. Amy tried to trek up the wall, but Shadow just dived in front of her.

"I don't need your ass in my face," he grunted before climbing ahead.

Amy didn't know if he was being a gentleman or not. His ways of showing emotions were either unaware or complicated.

Amy quickly caught up to him and they climbed up in silence. Amy knew Rouge was just trying to aggravate her. She wouldn't have that on this mission. She fumbled around in her bag looking for something while Shadow was trying to punch the vent in.

As soon as Shadow punched the vent in they put on the same gel as Rouge and a mask to stop any traces of their DNA from being found. Then they descended downwards. Amy landed on her feet silently like a cat before putting on a pair of clear goggles.

"These night-vision goggles weren't charged," she whispered in annoyance.

That's because a particular bat was too occupied in painting her nails, she overlooked charging them. Then she gave her dead ones to Amy. And took Shadow's fully charged ones.

"That bat forgot to charge her's and yours, so she took mine instead," Shadow complained.

Amy huffed and took out her flashlight. Shadow thought it was a bold choice. He didn't think she would have needed it since he thought she'd rely on advanced technology. However, this method of lighting would attract attention and could have set alarms off. Shadow didn't deplore getting caught since he thought he could get himself out of any situation. But this test Rouge was putting them through was ridiculous.

Instead, she flashed the light onto her inhibitor rings for a while until they started to gleam a bright, light red. Deep down, Shadow was doubting if she knew how to prevent every single trap that Rouge set up for her defeat. Rouge and Shadow knew it was harsh, but they wanted to know if she was deserving of being a Special Agent on their unit.

The duo kept crawling through the vent until they heard and felt a great amount of wind. The huge fan was engulfing air inwards. If they had dropped from where they were to get to the other side, they would die by getting hauled in by the wind. This was a life or death situation, yet so straightforward to figure out.

They needed to get to the other side of the vent platform where the path continued, but it was above them.

Shadow turned around to see Amy getting visibly frustrated and pushing her temper down. She complained about something before propelling a nearby tile of the vent open. Then she observed a few distinct wires.

"The green one should direct to the switch," she mumbled. Her face was transfixed in concentration. She chopped the wire and the fan abruptly halted. Shadow was about to take the bungee gum out again when swiftly, she walked backwards. Then she ran forwards, jumped upward, did a wall run, a wall jump and bounded her way up to the other vent platform.

Shadow, for once saw Amy in a different light.

**"Was this what she was capable of when she was forced into situations like these?"**

He forced those thoughts down and got on with the mission.

* * *

The Freedom Fighters saw an abandoned vent cover on the ground and questioned if they should have run in through there but Tails suggested that it would be a stupid idea.

They decided to use a grappling hook. The heavier ones like Knuckles, Blaze, Vector, Espio, Sally and Sonic continued upwards while Cream and Charmy, Silver and Tails flew up to assist in supporting the grapple hook. When they had finished climbing, they searched for an opening at the top of the building.

Cream walked on a hollow-sounding tile and booted it open. When they all peered inside with a flashlight, it seemed like a ladder. They all put on some night vision goggles and then descended the ladder. Suddenly, Charmy's Bee sting struck a button. They held their breath in intuition, trusting the alarms wouldn't sound which thankfully, they didn't. They breathed out in relaxation and glares into Charmy's skull. He sweatdropped and muttered a fair 'apology' before they went along with the mission.

As they were trying to figure out the layout of the base, they heard a familiar voice.

"Rouge, I can't believe you!" a voice yelled, "You put Shadow and me in life-threatening situations that just slowed down the mission. You and your stupid antics could have hurt me and Shadow and worst of all, we could have run into-." the voice paused as Amy emitted a loud gasp.

The Freedom fighters were taken aback as they made eye contact with the same mobians that they were trying to avoid. Was it fate or G.U.N that initiated this mission? Everything was getting ridiculous.

Sonic gulped slightly as he gained eye contact with Amy. Everything had appeared to be travelling in slow motion. She had long, tanned quills that were held up in twin-tails with a black scrunchie, and G.U.N battle clothing. And her youthful, forest green eyes had lost their gleeful glow.

"What have they done to Amy?" he subconsciously murmured.

"Nothing at all," she responded icily, crossing her arms with a smirk on her face. Amy tried to hold herself back from smiling, squealing or trying to hug her ex-crush. She was not over him at all. However, Amy knew that Sonic wasn't used to this version of her, so in this case, she had the upper hand.

"If you're done with examining me..." she resumed slyly, "I'd love to ask why you're here."

Sonic rolled his eyes while Sally scoffed. Him? Checking Amy out? 'Since when did that happen?' he thought. Even so, he couldn't take his eyes off her. This was not the old Amy he was secretly hoping to see.

"I don't think that's what he was doing," Sally responded.

Amy chuckled darkly. Sally could take her place on the team, and her friendships with everyone else but one thing she couldn't have was Amy's confidence and pride.

"Ms Acorn." she replied, "I don't recall discussing _anything_ with you."

Sally sighed firmly while rolling her eyes and kept her powerful attitude. Tails was nearly about to intervene. He didn't hate Amy, he just felt awkward about what was happening. In fact, in this situation, he wanted to hug her. But he kept his stance.

Sonic established a controlled appearance which he presumed would prompt her to hesitate. She made a reaction to it, but her eyes were unreadable and she kept her unyielding position. She was also leaning upon Shadow. And uncomfortable sensation had begun to merge in the base of his abdomen. He attempted to fix on a smirk, although he couldn't.

**"Since when did Amy get so comfy with the Ultimate Douchebag?"**

He forced those thoughts down and answered Amy.

"I think we're querying the same thing here," he replied.

Suddenly, Knuckles and Cream darted forth in the blink of an eye.


	11. 9 Mistakes Cause Accidents

**Location: Cryptic Castle Base, Central City Outskirts.**

**10:55 am**

Everything was a blur. As Knuckles and Cream moved forward, Amy's body was washed over in paralysis. What the hell were they planning? She found that she couldn't move, even though every reflex in her body screamed to move. It was as if her body knew what was going to happen. Shadow got ready to intercept, but instead, she was met by a bundle of arms.

Shadow stared at them suspiciously yet they completely ignored him. He twitched in anger and Amy signalled over to him with her eyes to tell him to calm down. He relaxed but still stood close to her. He wanted to get this mission over and done with as soon as possible. Sonic was glaring straight at him but Shadow refused to make eye contact with him, knowing it would annoy the hedgehog. Somehow, being closer to Amy than Sonic gave him a sense of superiority.

"Amy... it's been so long since we last saw you..." a troubled voice spoke.

She widened her eyes open in shock and realised that they were hugging her. Strangely, she wanted to return it. Her mixing of emotions made her mind go blank and made her unsure about how to react.

"Miss Amy Rose, you seem uncomfortable," Omega stated.

This diverted everybody's attention to the robot. He just blankly stared back at everyone. His voice made everyone snap out of whatever they were doing.

Rouge caught herself from being stunned at Amy's outburst and dusted herself off from her encounter with Amy.

"Well, well. Look who we ran into." she snickered.

Amy glared over at her,** 'Shut-up, Rouge. I can handle this.',** the look seemed to say.

Rouge just shrugged but stood there in case she needed to back Amy up. Amy lightly pushed Cream and Knuckles off her and they flinched at her coldness. She rolled her eyes inwardly and sighed. This was taking up too much time in the mission. Then she flashed them a quick wink and a smile to make up for the missing hug. Knuckles and Cream were surprised as they walked back over to the FF.

It was so awkward. Amy decided it was time for her to speak up on her reunion with her old friends.

"Well, Sonic. We don't have time for this. And seeing as you replied with a ridiculous answer, we asked first." Amy stated, walking up to him.

She decided to give him a little taste of her revenge. She walled up to him, swaying her hips as she walked and stopped in front of him, giving him a flirtatious look. Then she twirled her hair in her fingers and smirked. It seemed to work.

Sally looked outraged and Sonic's stance wavered as he fought a blush that crept onto his muzzle. Amy was embarrassing him in front of his friends. And he wouldn't dare say it out loud but he found it kind of...hot. He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Sally to reassure her that he could handle himself.

Amy faltered when she saw that look on his face. Her stomach did a little flip and her heart was set on fire. She had never seen Sonic look like that before. Maybe she was still in love with Sonic... Feelings always got in the way of things. She realised that if she wanted to get past missions, priorities should come before emotions. She snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Sonic start to stutter.

"Uh...w-well you have to promise to tell us why _you_ are here then if we tell you." he stuttered, embarrassed.

Amy was about to reply but was cut short by Blaze.

"Amy." she stated with a hard and blunt tone, "We are not children anymore, stop wasting time and state your business instead of playing these games."

Amy just chuckled darkly and maintained her composure. The pain from being kicked off the team and being replaced was creeping back up into her emotions at a tiresome rate and there was a numbing paralysis in the air. The FF had a choice. To reconcile to work together, or to make things awkward by not swallowing their pride. They had chosen the second one.

"Miss...Blaze." Amy seethed, "I am aware that we aren't children. Yet I am not sure why royalty is challenging me when they have _BETTER_ things to do."

Amy stopped and took in the two princesses' flaming faces with triumph before continuing.

"Now, it seems that there is a misunderstanding. I seem to have done _something_ wrong for you guys to be acting this way. So why don't we all meet up sometime soon and talk like the ACTUAL adults you guys _claim_ to be? That way, we can clear things up." she seethed.

Amy had stepped on a nerve because everybody appeared to be on edge with her statement. It wasn't a bad idea.

"It's a deal," Sally stated, hatred wavering in her tone. Amy smirked with satisfaction. Blaze's demeanour darkened and she snarled.

"Great!" Rouge spoke, tired of the time-wasting. "Now please get on with whatever the fuck you were here for, we're leaving," she stated while dragging Shadow and Omega away.

Amy's jaw dropped while she signalled to Rouge with her eyes to Cream, Tails and Charmy.

**'There were minors here.'**

Rouge simply didn't give a shit and rolled her eyes. Amy looked dismayed. Sometimes Rouge could be very outrageous.

Cream and Charmy softly chuckled while Tails glared unhappily at them to shut them up.

"What?" Rouge innocently questioned, "I seriously don't give a shit about what they're here for. Let's bounce."

Rouge winked at Knuckles while Amy just shook her head as Team Dark started to walk away. She heard hushed tones of outrage from the team behind them. Amy let out a long sigh while walking away while trying to focus on the mission.

Suddenly, Shadow heard quick footsteps. He saw Blaze charging toward Amy with a fireball in her hand. He wasn't going to make it.

"Rose! Behind you!" he shouted.

Suddenly, Amy was grabbed by the shoulder. Amy saw Blaze's hand approaching so she tried to block it but she didn't react in time. But Blaze slapped her in the face with a fireball, causing her cheek to suffer a first-degree burn. Amy's face felt like it was slapped with wasp stings. It burned like hell. The side of her face was covered in blood. Amy screamed out in pain and looked up at her with tears. She felt upset and betrayed, why did the Freedom Fighters insist on constant war? She looked over at Blaze who was gritting her teeth with a flame in her hand.

**'Why would she do such a thing?'**, Amy thought.

Shadow stood protectively in front of her. Everybody looked at him in shock. Shadow threw a chaos spear at Blaze, causing her to dodge it and stand back to where her team was.

It looked like Blaze had regret doing it as she held her burning hand, but it looked like there was no turning back for her now.

"Do you realised what you've just done to your own friend, what is wrong with you people?!" Rouge yelled.

Everyone looked startled, they hadn't seen Rouge yell like this before, especially not for someone like Amy.

"She's not friends with us anymore and she needs to have some respect, especially you Rouge! You're 24 years old and continue to act like a child. Amy has been problematic for years, and it clearly shows now doesn't it?" Blaze seethed.

Blaze had some truth in what she was saying, but this didn't justify the way she tried to solve the problem. This was completely wrong.

"This is coming from the one who just tried to solve a situation with violence? Set your priorities straight, cat." Shadow hissed.

He was done with the games and timewasting. He didn't know why, but them hurting Amy made him feel pissed off. What was the point in all the unnecessary drama? He wanted a fully functioning team on this mission, who were the Freedom Fighters to get in the way of it.

"You are blinded into think that you guys are the victim, aren't you? I agree, maybe Amy should have stepped up her game on your team and grown out of her childish style _years_ ago, but the way you went about it shows that you never believed that she could change, so you tried to force her into being someone that she didn't want to be. When you saw that it wasn't working, you resorted to treating her like nothing. The truth hurts doesn't it?" Rouge hissed.

Rouge was not one for long speeches, but she found herself having to break down information for these idiots to understand. She didn't want to admit it, but she saw Amy as her little sister. And she wanted Amy to stand up for herself more. When Amy was unable to do that, she would.

Blaze looked ready to strike again, but she saw that Team Dark was starting to run away. If they didn't leave now, they would fail the mission from wasting time. As Amy clutched her burning cheek, Shadow carried her in his Arms while Rouge and Omega flew behind them. Blaze and the rest of the freedom fighters were chasing after them and because of this Shadow reluctantly pulled a red chaos emerald out of his pocket.

"That's the last emerald we're looking for!" Tails yelled out. "Don't lose sight of them!"

"CHAOS CONTROL!" bellowed Shadow.

Suddenly, there was a blinding light and before they knew it, Team Dark teleported elsewhere in the base. To a room where Shadow should never have teleported to.


	12. 10 Inevitable Death

**Location: Cryptic Castle Base, Central City Outskirts**

**11:07 am**

After the light of the chaos control had faded, Shadow quickly stood up and took the first aid kit out of his bag to attend to Amy's injuries. He took out gauze and applied alcohol to it before Amy stopped him. He looked at her, confused.

"You shouldn't apply alcohol to an open wound shadow, just use cool water," she mumbled. She winced in pain from talking. As Shadow took out the water bottle and applied the wet gauze to her face. She squeezed her hands tightly and tried to hold his hand as her silent tears fell out her eyes. He wasn't sure if it was because of what Blaze did or because of the pain from the cleaning the wound. Despite this, Amy continued to try to hold his hand. Shadow snatched it away and he shot her a glare. She gave him a mean look. Shadow finally gave in to her obnoxious attitude.

"If you hold my hand, how am I supposed to tend to your cheek?" he growled harshly.

She looked at him sadly and rested her hand on his thigh. Shadow felt a jolt of butterflies shoot throughout his whole body and instinctively moved away. Nobody else had touched him there before. Amy looked at him with a dejected look and so, without thinking, he ruffled her quills. That dejected face of hers got on his nerves caused his walls to crash down immediately. What was it about her that made him so caring? He saw no reason to be cold towards her, but he also saw no reason to be friendly. What snapped him out of his thoughts was Amy's blush. How had an action so little cause her to be embarrassed?

Well, it could have meant little to him but it could have meant something else to her. This was Amy he was talking about.

She bashfully turned away from him and he looked away while growling.

"Rose, it's a one-time thing. Don't expect it to happen again," he spoke as he stood up and put out his hand for her to take. She stared after him and took his hand and pulled herself up.

Shadow didn't know about her but he had a mission to focus on and complete. They examined the room they were in. The room was dusty and looked unused. Shadow turned around to look at Amy who was still trying her best to focus on the mission but she still looked shocked. He felt an uncomfortable sense of protectiveness around the girl as she turned and stared at him. Rouge declared a loud cough, interrupting their moment.

"Hey guys, look what I found." spoke the sultry voice of Rouge, snapping them completely out of their thoughts. Rouge giggled and continued talking.

"While you two love birds were having a little moment over there, I-"

Rouge stopped in her tracks with a nervous smile as she felt the heat radiating off Amy in a dangerous way. Amy was smiling creepily, and she was clenching her jaw. It seemed as though she had forgotten the pain from her cheek.

"We. aren't._ lovers_." Amy seethed through clenched teeth.

Rouge covered up her nervousness with a sweatdrop while continuing to talk, her voice slightly altered by the digital cover she wore over her face.

"Anywho, I found an old computer looking thing over here. I forgot what it's called surprisingly, considering the number of times I've been in Eggman's base."

Amy scanned over it with her eyes before the gears finally turned in her head. She placed a hand over her burnt cheek to talk.

"That's one of Eggman's inventions, the super-powered computer that nobody but Eggman can access."

Shadow suddenly became suspicious. Only he and Rouge had worked with Eggman and knew what he built. Why was Amy aware of these things.

"And how do you know this?" Shadow inquired.

She smirked but winced pain from her cheek.

"I didn't sit around doing nothing in Eggman's base when I got captured ya know," she answered.

Rouge seemed like she was about to laugh so she covered it up with a yawn.

**'That's not something to be proud of...but it is useful.' **Rouge thought.

Amy stood still while the others walked off. She got out a USB wire and connected it to her communicator on her wrist. She took a little time before she hacked into it.

"Rouge, I need your help getting past Eggman's firewall," Amy stated. Rouge came over to help her.

Shadow looked around cluelessly but raised his eyebrows when he saw Amy open the whole programme. She had unlocked the computer efficiently.

"It's...a diary..." Amy stated.

* * *

**(With the Freedom Fighters)**

**11:27 am**

After 20 minutes of looking for them, they eventually had to page G.U.N and let them know about the mission. G.U.N wasn't very impressed, however, they did seem to have another bizarre mission for them.

"Okay freedom fighters..." their temporary boss sighed while his head leaned against his two clasped hands with his elbow on the table, "Set the self-destruction button for the base off."

"What?!" they all yelled in unison. There were people in there, they couldn't just set it off without warning them?

"Do, it." he growled while smirking evilly, "I just want to test the new agent to see what they're good for in this mission."

"Yo man, that's too cruel...we need to tell them at least." Knuckles snapped.

The boss just cut the call and they stood there in utter disbelief.

"What about Amy and Rouge's safety?" Cream interposed desperately.

"Cream, an order is an order." Sally retorted.

"Our old friends are in there, they could die! You can't just expect them to be okay!" Cream desperately yelled.

Cream looked over at Blaze with a sad face. She had already slapped her friend with a fireball, the least she could do was help her out here. Blaze just returned the look. Cream shook her head angrily at Blaze and Sonic before she tried to run off to look for them. Knuckles had to hold her down.

"Don't do it C, they won't listen. Besides, they're Team Dark. They can handle themselves." Knuckles spoke.

Cream's shoulder's slump as she started screaming and thrashing about in Knuckles' arms. She didn't want to risk their lives.

Sonic looked at the others with his most afflicted gaze, and he knew what he had to do. He went over to the button and pushed it while everyone else evacuated immediately. He just hoped that they heard it.

* * *

**(Back to Team Dark...)**

**11:28 am**

The diary looked exactly like the one Tails had mentioned about at the Grand Prix when Eggman was trying to take advantage of the ancient extreme gear. She took some time to translate the symbols on the screen.

Intrigued, Amy decided to read it out loud.

**_"Dear Diary,_**

**_I shouldn't be writing like a little child who portrays their little fantasies onto paper, but who else do I have to talk to instead of these useless talking machines? Moving on, these good for nothing freedom fighters have been snooping everywhere and so has G.U.N trying to find out my next plans. Alistair-"_**

Amy stopped short in reading and could not believe her eyes. Why was her father's name in this? She thought that he left to another country a while ago. Regardless, Amy pushed down her emotions while reading on.

**_"Alistair Rose and I have decided to come up with a new plan to crush the freedom fighters first. I have an IQ of 300 and these baffoons think I sit there and do absolutely nothing but design robots. All we need to do is just find out one of their vulnerabilities and exploit it against them. For now, I used Alistair Rose and put him into a container somewhere in this base. He was very unwise to try and trust one of the planet's most evil geniuses."_**

Suddenly the screen started to glitch and a few words came up.

**_THIS DIARY HAS BEEN REMOVED._**

"WHAT?!" Rouge yelled.

Shit, Eggman knew that they were here.

**"EMERGENCY ALERT, EMERGENCY ALERT. PREPARE TO REPEL INTRUDERS. SELF DESTRUCT IN 2 MINUTES."**

They all shot each other their most frightened gazes. Everything was happening too fast. Shadow suddenly picked Amy up in his arms and started to run, but Amy jumped out of his arms and shot him a glare.

"I can run by myself, you know," she growled.

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" yelled Rouge, "GO NOW!"

Amy started to run at her fastest speed. Shadow did the same but grabbed Amy's arm as she wasn't as fast. Rouge and Omega flew behind them through the halls. Through the clear glass windows, we could see they could freedom fighters making their way back into the ship. Then thick metal barries started to snap shut over the glass windows. The same happened in front of them. Until they realised a deadly outcome.

"We're trapped!" Amy declared hopelessly.

**"30 SECONDS LEFT."**

Just as they were about the process the situation, robots showed up to attack all three of them. Amy swallowed _hard._

_Were they going to die?_


	13. 11 Upset n Regret

**Location: Cryptic Castle Base, Central City Outskirts**

**11:40 am**

Rouge's heart slammed hard into her chest with fear. he swallowed her fear and composed herself while looking over to Shadow.

**"Surely, the chaos emerald could get them out here in time?" **she thought while eyeing it in his hands.

"The chaos emerald won't work for a while Rouge," he stated while sounding slightly worried. This was the first time she had seen Shadow worried.

30 seconds were starting to pass by very quick.

"Rouge look out!" Amy yelled.

Rouge was almost caught off guard by a blast that the robot had thrown at her but Amy hit the blast towards a nearby vent with her hammer. However, Amy was already injured so she had taken some damage from the blast.

The robots looked ready to attack again.

Amy stayed composed and removed her inhibitor rings. She put them in her pocket and her Piko Piko hammer appeared larger. She smashed the floor hard and vines from underground rose from the floor, obliterating the robots.

Rouge and Shadow looked over at her suspiciously in question. Just what was this power? Was it even hers or something to do with Eggman's Base?

"GO..!" she yelled, making it clear that there was no time for questions.

They crawled through the vent that she had blasted open while the countdown boomed in their ears.

5...

Shadow crawled frantically behind them, Rouge didn't know what he was trying to do.

4...

Omega decided to slow down in front of them. Now was not the time.

3...

There it was, the light of afternoon time in front of them. They were going to make it out alive, right?

2...1...

Shadow pushed them forward with his body and shielded all of them just as they made it outside of the base. They heard him yell out in agonising pain.

Rouge's thoughts went into a puddle of mush as she slowly lost consciousness.

Amy frantically looked around for her damaged communicator and saw that it was nowhere to be seen. She put back on her inhibitor rings and continued scanning the area with her eyes.

'Dang it!' she thought as her fist banged the dirt in frustration. Sonic and his friends were nowhere to be seen and now her friends/teammates were on the floor unconscious. What was she supposed to do?

Amy looked underneath herself and found that Rouge was severely injured. She reminisced that she would tend to her injuries after she got some sort of transport for them.

Then she remembered about the chaos emerald in Shadow's hand. Screw her communicator, she could just chaos control them back to the base. As she reached for the emerald in Shadow's hand, Omega spoke.

"That wouldn't be a wise idea." Omega hummed in his monotone voice.

"Why not?" Amy snapped, running out of patience.

Omega buzzed and processed something for a minute as if he was trying to process something.

"I once overheard a conversation with my comrades. They said that they would keep the emerald a secret because if G.U.N got their hands onto it then it could cause a problem."

They were wasting time. Amy finally heard her communicator starting to beep underneath Rouge. There wasn't time to answer. Amy ended the call and sent a distress call out...

She just hoped they arrived on time...

* * *

**12:37 pm**

Sonic heard and felt one of the two resounding slaps in the aircraft. Tails decided to ignore the tension, keeping his problems to himself and concentration on the flight to keep everyone safe. Knuckles was being held back by an exhausted sally, Vector was on the phone to Vanilla trying to ask how to get Cream to calm down while Charmy and Espio did not have a care in the world about what was going on. Meanwhile, a furious Cream was something Sonic had to worry about. We had never seen Cream like this before. Screaming, yelling, despairing. Cream was always full of hope and joy. Sonic looked over to his right and saw that Cream had slapped Blaze as well. Surprisingly, Blaze did not retaliate. After all, Cream was one of her good friends.

"YOU...!" she shouted in a lower voice than usual, "You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Cream, it was an order, we had to follow it. Simple children like you wouldn't understand." sighed sally.

Knuckles cracked his knuckles so loudly, it caused the tension in the room to jump itself.

"Sonic...you'd better collect your woman. I haven't ever hit a girl before in my life and I will today." growled Knuckles. Sonic just gave him a nervous smirk and Sally looked dismayed.

"Y'know _princess _sally..." Cream replied, "I usually have respect for royalty. But today, it seems like you have a knack for jumping into conversations when nobody asked you anything in the first place. I'm talking to Sonic and Blaze thank you very much. I don't give a damn about my age. A _toddler_ could be 3 and have more common sense than you guys! AMY WAS YOUR OLD COMRADE. HOW CAN YOU RISK KILLING HER ALONG WITH INNOCENT BEINGS?!"

"That's enough." a soft, yet stern voice coming from Vanilla who called through Vector's phone. Cream immediately stopped talking and broke down into tears with Blaze running to her side.

"I think the best solution is that all of you should talk with each other when you get back to Tails' workshop. You can sort it out from there. I have no business within G.U.N but I think this may be the best solution." spoke Vanilla.

Everyone looked at each other except Cream and nodded their heads. That was the best solution.

"Everyone _please_...shut up or whatever and sit down in your seats for landing. I've got a headache from all of you." exhaled Tails from all of the unnecessary noise.

The aircraft was once again filled with silence, except Cream's occasional quiet sniffs as she called her mother on her phone. Sally and Knuckles were sending each other death glares so Sonic pulled her to sit in his seat. Blaze was sitting next to Cream trying to calm her down and Vector was having a quiet chat with charmy.

Sonic went over to the window seat near Tails and looked out to the darkening sky over Central City Isle. The city lights were gleaming a radiant white. It somehow reminded him of Amy.

The white light was annoyingly blinding, yet it still shone for a purpose. To help you see.

Amy Rose. She was somebody he had to constantly push to the back of his thoughts. Before she left, he had barely thought about her or remembered any memories of them together.

After she left, she was on his mind nonstop. It left a pang of guilt in his chest.

He noticed that she was the only one who noticed the little things about him, even though in the past it was creepy. She was the one who always gave him companionship since she was always following him, so he didn't feel lonely. She gave him hope in his darkest moments by cheering him on, yet he made it seem like it meant little to him. Sure, Amy wasn't the best person in the past; annoying, clingy, had a bad temper, creepy and not very useful. However, Sonic had failed to notice those things. No matter how he tried to convince him and the team that she was the one that betrayed them by not stepping up her game sooner and by being problematic, they all know full well that they shouldn't have treated her like that.

"Tails..." Sonic felt himself speak, "Do you think we'll still be meeting up with Amy some time and talking to her about things?"

There was a long silence before Tails finally decided to answer after he landed the plane. The rest of the team got off while they were left inside the dimly lit aircraft talking to each other.

"Sonic, I already told you not to distract me while I'm landing." sighed Tails, rubbing his temples in stress.

"Tails don't avoid the question," Sonic ordered sternly.

"Me?" he suddenly yelled, "I'm the one who's avoiding questions? Sonic no, I don't have time for this."

He started to walk off. Sonic looked at him confused, why was his best bid acting so strange? Tails then turned around to answer.

"If you really must know, I don't think she will. She must have at least had a few casualties by now from all the bullshit we've put her through. And I'm not just talking about today, I'm talking about 2 months ago. So much has happened in just 8 weeks."

"Tails, you know Amy by now she would be coming back to talk to us...right? I mean it's Amy we're talking about."

Tails looked outside into the night sky with a look of regret in his face.

"I'm afraid that the Amy you're hoping for is long gone Sonic. We had the chance to fix things and that's also long gone. For now, we'll just hope for the best."

As Sonic watched him walk away, he couldn't help but feel sad. He still had a tiny bit of hope that Amy might come if he asked, but he felt bad.

All those times Amy ran after him asking for attention, he didn't genuinely give it to her. Plus, thanks to him setting off the Self-Destruct button, she could be dead.

No, he couldn't think like that.

This time, it's his turn to catch her.

* * *

**Location: G.U.N HQ, G.U.N HQ's Hospital**

**6:44 pm**

Quiet voices resonated in Shadow's head as he adjusted his eyes to the light in the room.

**"Where the hell am I, what happened and how did I get here?" **he wondered.

His head then ticked with realisation. A pink hedgehog lay on his chest sleeping.

Shadow didn't know what was going on or where he was, so he gently tried to push her off him. He then realised that it was Amy.

Shadow's heart skipped for a second while he rushed into panic mode. Except for Rouge and Maria, he had never had a female this close to him or sleeping on him. And she was nestled into his chest fur. A glare formed on his face as he blushed in embarrassment.

"Rose." he quietly stated.

Slowly, Amy sat up and looked over at him. She seemed to be realising her embarrassment from falling asleep on top of him. Then she realised he was awake. Amy hugged him so hard, that Shadow thought he was experiencing one of her infamous death hugs.

"Oh, Shadow! Thank god you're awake. Thank God you're okay. What the hell _were_ you thinking when you shielded that explosion with your body, huh?! You're such an idiot! " Amy yelled her emotions were a mix of relief and anger.

Shadow looked at her, confused. He did that? Amy frantically looked at her watch. She had to go and visit Rouge.

"I'll catch you later Shadow, gotta go check up on Rouge," Amy spoke.

Shadow nodded in acknowledgement.

Shortly after Amy left, he took the time to take in his surroundings.

**'So this is G.U.N's hospital.'** Shadow thought.

He hadn't recognised this place he didn't need to visit here since he didn't always end up getting injured on missions.

"Mr Shadow the Hedgehog?" said a female bear in a nurse's uniform. She looked about 20. Shadow looked up at her to let her acknowledge that he had heard her.

"Most of your injuries have healed up, but you'll have to stay in here for the next week due to 3rd-degree burns on your limbs."

He nodded his head before _actually _taking in what she had said.

**Did she just say the next week...?**


	14. 12 Sorting Problems Again

**Location: G.U.N HQ's Hospital,**

**5:00 p.m.**

As Amy stood outside the door to Rouge's Hospital Room, She rubbed her temples trying to calm herself down. There was so much to think about...

What if her father had died in the base like the diary had said, what Eggman was planning and what to tell G.U.N. It hadn't been a failed mission, and they were almost killed.

Something was up, she could feel it. She was glad that her wrist communicator had accidentally saved the diary.

Why would Sonic be at the same location at the same time as them? Why were they there and what were they looking for? And most importantly, why were they searching for the last emerald?

Amy needed to go and visit Rouge. Maybe she could clear her mind there. She walked over to Rouge's door and knocked on the door. When there was no answer, Amy opened the door. Rouge yelped and turned around to her.

"A-Amy?! What are you doing here?" she yelped. Rouge covered her face as if she was trying to hide something.

Amy inwardly sighed and put a firm grip onto her arm.

"I'm here to visit you, what are you hiding?"

Rouge sighed heavily and continued talking with her hands over her face.

"I look different without makeup...they took it off so that they could tend to my injuries."

Amy slowly pried her hands off her face and she looked up at Rouge. Yep, she looked like a complete mess but Amy thought that Rouge was pretty without makeup on. She couldn't understand why Rouge wore it in the first place.

"Yep, Rouge, let's get you cleaned up." Amy chirped.

Amy took out a bag that she had quickly grabbed from her room and took out some face wipes. Amy removed her eyeshadow, mascara and her lipstick. Then she gave her some of her vaseline because her lips were dry and chapped. Amy took her bun out ready to brush her hair but Rouge stopped her.

"Thanks, Amy, I'm glad for your help...but I kind of feel like a baby. Let me brush my hair."

Amy kind of felt awkward. One minute Rouge was vulnerable and friendly and the next she was unreadable and straightforward.

"Haha...it's okay. I know you don't let many people come near you anyway. I respect your privacy." Amy said with a nervous laugh.

Rouge looked over at Amy with and questioned look while brushed out her medium length wavy hair.

"I don't get it." she sighed as she closed her eyes.

"Don't get what?" Amy asked.

"How you can you read and connect with people so easily? How aren't you afraid of what people will think of you? How are you able just do what you want?" Rouge explained.

There was a silence in the room as the TV in the room continued to play music, one that didn't seem to fit the mood. Eventually, Amy spoke.

"You've me all wrong Rouge, I'm not like what you say at all. It's true that whenever someone needs help, no matter if I hate them I would help them, no matter what they think of me I will talk to them. At the moment, you push those feelings aside but when you think about it, I have the same thoughts as you. How _am_ I able to do that? Well, it's the same thing I did with Sonic. Sometimes, even though it takes a while, you look forward to the future instead of concentrating on the past. Otherwise, you get held back from your feelings from the past."

"What if the answer you're looking for is in the past?" Rouge questioned.

"I'm not sure, Rouge..."

Amy truly did not know.

* * *

**Location: Tail's Workshop/ Residence**

**6:22 pm**

It was now evening time, and as much as Sonic wanted to run away to get some space from the grumpy tired mobians in front of him, they had to have a meeting and write down a mission report.

"I wanna go home..." sighed Silver, while laying on Blaze.

"Can we just sort this out tomorrow?" questioned Sally.

Everyone in the room looked over at her. She sighed and replied with a pleading face.

"Please?"

Sonic finally rolled his eyes and went over to pull her up from the sofa. He made too many exceptions for her.

"Sure, let's get you home." he sighed while he walked to the door.

"Anyone else coming?" Sonic suggested. He was going to take Sally home but he didn't mind dropping everyone else off.

Nobody moved. Except for Tails.

"I don't care how tired anyone is at the moment. We need to talk," he spoke.

"That's easy for you to say Tails, I've got a home to get to and you're here in your house." Sally snapped.

Tails sighed. He didn't want to be mean to his best bud's girlfriend but she was testing his patience.

"We can't just continue to avoid this though. The main reason why we are continuously having problems is that we don't sort the main problems out." replied Tails.

"B-but I'm tired, I have to call my father because he expects me home-" whined Sally but she was cut short by Knuckles.

"I agree with him." Knuckles replied.

Everyone looked over at him in shock. It wasn't like Knuckles to talk like this.

"I may not be the most level headed person...and I don't want to admit it but... Amy is like a little sister to me. We should all agree that the way we treated her is not okay." he continued.

Silver stood up.

"Okay knuckles, sure, she's like a little sister to me too. Yes, the way we treated her wasn't okay but wasn't that 2 months ago? Even if we acknowledge that now, there's not gonna bring her back or get her to talk to us." he stated.

"If you had acknowledged this 2 months ago this stupid drama wouldn't be happening would it? All we needed to do was talk to her not kick her off the damn team-"

"That's enough," Sally interposed.

Everyone looked over at her. Since when was she in charge? There was another awkward silence. Sonic needed to get her out of here. He didn't want to admit it but Sally was causing problems.

"What do you want to do?" Sonic asked, prompting Sally to leave.

Sally hesitated. Cream looked up at Blaze and then she nodded.

"This isn't up to Sally, or anyone else for that matter," Blaze replied.

Sally looked at her, visibly annoyed.

"Are you saying that we won't have time tomorrow to talk about this? I have things to do. As a princess I have duties. You of all people should know this." she replied.

"You should have thought about your duties before you took Amy's place on the team, _princess._" fumed Cream.

Sally's eyebrow twitched in irritation while Blaze looked over at Cream with a stern look.

"Okay, okay. Let's sort this out and avoid arguments, please. I'm sure we're all tired and want to go home." Espio spoke up, trying to calm the tension in the room.

"What we did was wrong, but it was an order and we had to follow it. Yes, Cream, I don't agree with it either and I also don't agree with Sonic partnering us up with G.U.N. We didn't have a choice. You just have to have a word with the boss about it if you are unhappy. You could also ask to see Amy see if she's okay or even made it out alive. But for now, all we can do is hand in the mission report tomorrow and be on our way. There now everybody can go home. Hmph." boomed Vector who was grouchy from all the drama.

"Uh...so what are we going to write on the report then?" asked Silver.

"What do you mean, idiot? We're going to report what we found." mocked charmy.

Silver glared at him. He wasn't in the mood for his antics.

"Oh yeah? So what did we find?" Silver replied.

Everyone sweatdropped. They didn't find anything and G.U.N wasn't going to be pleased.

"Well," Sonic began.

That was a problem...

* * *

**6:40 pm**

Shadow looked over to the bear nurse as she adjusted a few things in the hospital for him.

"You're not very talkative, are you?" she murmured, pouring him a glass of water. Shadow just stared after her.

"Here, you seem dehydrated," she said, offering him the glass. Shadow took it and set it aside from the table.

"I'm not dehydrated." he rasped out, looking at her out of the stupidity of trying to read him.

"Yes, you are. The pee in the urinal bag next to you is dark and concentrated," she said with a stern voice.

Shadow glared at her. What did she think she was playing at?

"Listen to me Mr Hedgehog, I'm not here to fight you, I'm here to help you. You may be immortal, but you have the body of a Mobian. If you know what's good for you, drink up."

Shadow snatched the glass off the stand with such ferocity, that he ended up knocking a medication bottle onto his burnt legs. He hissed in pain but downed a little of the water to help ease it. The nurse then handed him the bottle of medication.

"These are painkillers whenever your legs start to feel uncomfortable. You should rest them and keep them away from hot things. That means you should take lukewarm baths."

Why was she advising him as a child? Of course, he wasn't stupid. Shadow just looked over to her and nodded. Then he read the medication bottle.

**This medicine should be taken with food only.**

Shadow sighed in irritation. Food was not a necessity for him, he could survive without it. Why were these people trying so badly to feed him?

"Oh, I almost forgot. Agent Rose left something for you. It seems she cooked for you after she brought you here. You should thank her, she seemed exhausted."

An inviting smell entered his nose. No matter how he told his body to stop trying to intake that smell, it just did the opposite. The nurse laid a table which was attached to the hospital bed in front of him and put the food down. When he unwrapped the cling film from the paper plate and laid the plastic spoon beside the food, he laid my eyes upon the food.

It was chicken curry with rice and a tiny bit of salad on the plate. Then he opened a container to find two chocolate brownies and another container with fruit such as mangoes and berries inside it. How long was he asleep for her to make this from scratch...?

Screw this, what was Rose playing at? Was she his mum? Or wife? His heart started to flip thinking about it.

**"This god damn hedgehog**."

"Well Mr Shadow, I'll be seeing you tomorrow. Call me if you need help going to the toilet or anything." replied the bear nurse.

"Oh, by the way, call me Tasha."

Tasha slipped away while he stared at the food, ready to dig in.

_This life of his...it's very...interesting._


	15. Replying to Reviews and Additional info

**Replying to Reviews**

**Sonicfanandotherstuff:** Thank you for taking the time to read my story! I honestly love your reviews, they motivate me alot because you give the story nice compliments. The freedom fighters have messed things up, hopefully, they can turn things around. Also, I don't think Shadow is angry to stay in the hospital, he's not too enthusiastic at the idea of being cooped up like a baby in the hospital. Thanks for reading this far. :)

**Nebula the Hedgehog:** Thank you so much for taking the time to help me improve my stories, I really appreciate it. I also appreciate you letting me use one of your artworks for this story, I couldn't be more grateful. Hopefully, the team won't continue to make the same mistakes and let each one of themselves slowly correct their behaviour. Amy's physical skills are not on par with her emotional skills and Shadow is there to help her luckily. Also, sometimes Sonic could let his ego get out of hand which is why everyone should stick together to help each other improve their mistakes. Sonic and Tails do not like the weight of responsibility on their shoulders haha. Sonic may be able to physically keep up with Amy, but not emotionally. Maybe he may not catch her in time. And yes, you could say the team works like the elements of harmony. Glad to have a fellow MLP fan. Thanks for reading this far :)

**Amefloza13:** Yes, Amy's name is Amelia, sorry I'm working on correcting mistakes and bad grammar in my story. The timeline is that Amy left the team and went to train to be a G.U.N agent for 2 months. Not 4 years, sorry about the confusion. Good to hear that the Spanish translator is now working for you and that you're wondering what will happen in the chapters to come! A lot of things shall happen. And yes, not even an immortal like shadow could resist Amy's food. Thank you for reading this far :)

**Undernet-Broker**: I would like to explain, but I think you'll find that out soon :) I'll leave the inhibitor rings' place of origin for Amy a mystery for now. Thank you for reading and reviewing :)

**mewfatima**, **Swaggerlicious****TiaMaria**: Thank you so much for your support :) I appreciate it a lot.

**KayALee:** Thank you so much for the constructive criticism, I appreciate it. It's a little too harsh, but it motivates me to do better. I shall look into tidying up my story very soon. I don't think I will rewrite the chapters I have, I will just correct grammar, spelling and narrative style. I will put more effort into further chapters, I pinky promise :)

**RocknRollZombie:** Aww, don't worry I will stick to my plot since I already have the story written out. I'm just changing it from a childish version into something actually readable while doing this I hit a bit of writer's block but I'm doing my best. Thank you for being a loyal reader :)

**SlideinTheDM:** First of all, I just want to start off by saying I love your name, it cracks me up. Really witty. Thank you for all the compliments toward my story and I'll look into working on the chapters' length to be a little longer with more '_juice' _in them. Don't worry, if I were a new reader to this story, I'd be pissed at the freedom fighter's behaviour too. Thank you for reading this far :)

**pinksakura271:** Thank you for your compliments! Shadamy is slowly blossoming, but hopefully, all the drama won't get in the way of that. I don't think Knuckles hits women, but he believes that he should because... y' know, gender equality am I right? Tails is hoping for the best after the way he and Sonic had treated Amy. And Sonic won't catch her this time as thorns may get in the way of him rekindling their friendship. Don't worry, I was supposed to add that Amy thought Rouge looked really pretty without makeup, but I was rushing to complete this chapter on a camping trip, I'm deeply sorry, haha. And yes, Knuckles and Cream happen to be the closest to Amy right now. And yes, hopefully, Tasha won't have to fight shadow to get him better. Thanks for reading :)

**BurntFractals:** I'm sorry for the excessive use of complicated words lol. I know it's a joke but honestly, somebody did tell me to change up my choice of words because the story had sounded a bit too childish. I promise I'll try to keep my work original. Thanks for commenting and I hope you enjoyed the story. The prologue is meant to be like that to express the despair Amy is feeling. Love your username though. 3 :)

Thank you to the rest of my loyal readers for reading, reviewing and supporting my story!

_ADDITIONAL INFORMATION._

_**This story should finish by chapter 20 since I am aiming to at least write a sequel or a completely new story. This should be finished by mid-June. :)**_

_**Tasha the Bear is a nurse that works at G.U.N. She is 20 years old and her father is one of the CEO's of G.U.N. You may learn more about her in the future. She has light orange fur with green eyes and long brown hair she keeps tied up in a bun.**_


	16. 13 Acceptance

**Location: G.U.N HQ'S Hospital**

**7:40 pm**

It felt like Shadow hadn't eaten in weeks. He had kept on telling himself that his body didn't need nutrients because he was the ultimate lifeform and because of this his body had weakened a little. Though he was ashamed to admit that out loud, his stomach sat full in satisfaction. He finally took the medicine and waited for the irritation of the burning sensation in his legs to die down. He then stared at the door wondering why Tasha was being so pleasant toward him but he brushed off the mere thought and wondered why Amy went through all this trouble for him. She had too much of a caring heart.

Shadow looked over to the clock and the digital numbers showed 7:42 pm...It was getting late. And he was starting to feel strangely hot and tired. Shadow looked over to the medication bottle. He guessed it was the side effects but he didn't want to be going to sleep early like a child trying to get well rested before school tomorrow. But he had no choice but to give in to the side effects. He couldn't walk anywhere for the next 6 days anyway. He was hoping that he was let out early though, he didn't want to admit it but he would be lonely in a hospital room. Shadow saw a figure standing outside of his hospital door as if they were talking to someone before they let themselves in.

"Shadow..?" Amy shyly asked.

Shadow looked up at her. He didn't know why, but his body was acting weirdly again as he remembered the flashbacks from what happened at the base. He became angry as he saw the bruises and tired circles underneath her eyes. What was she doing? It ANNOYED him. He swiftly swung his feet out of bed, forgetting about his burnt legs and grabbed her wrist. She looked back at him in shock.

"Sh-Shadow?! What do you think you're doing? You're hurt-"

Shadow snapped. This girl had gotten him food, taken both he and Rouge to the hospital and gone back and forth for things without thinking about her wellbeing. Why would she do such a thing? Her cheek was going to get infected.

"What the HELL are you playing at ROSE?" he yelled.

She didn't look at me in anger, she looked scared and she flinched a little. He told himself he didn't care but didn't know why he was shouting at her.

"I'm tired of reading you like a book. When I swung my legs out of the bed, you immediately became concerned for my well being. You didn't even bother to check to see if you would get hurt from that. Things like that are why weaklings like you die on the battlefield." Shadow hissed.

She looked up to him with an empty smile. Why was he being so mean?

"That's funny since your ass is the one in a hospital bed." she snarled with venom in her voice.

Shadow felt a pang of guilt as his anger and ego were slapped down a notch. For the first time, she was right.

"Don't mind him, Amy," Rouge said in a playful teasing tone.

**"What was this bat up to now? Where did she come from?" **Shadow asked himself.

"Romeo over here is just trying to look out for your wellbeing. Hypocritical, if I do say so myself," she smirked.

Amy's changes of expression were hard to keep up with. She was suddenly smiling and shyly twiddling her fingers. Shadow's hand was still loosely wrapped around her wrist. Shadow, on the other hand, became embarrassed with a small blush painted on his muzzle. He looked away trying to hide it with his signature, "Hmph." He wasn't in the mood for this for Rouge's teasing again.

"A-ah...is that so? Thanks, Shadow."

Shadow glared over at Rouge. Those meds weren't giving him the strength to retaliate.

"Don't put ideas in her head." Shadow hissed in humiliation. The pink hog just gave him a mean look.

"Uh, Rouge? Why are you out of your hospital room?" probed Amy.

Rouge had a smirk plastered on her face but Shadow could tell that she was trembling from her burnt, bandaged wing.

"Amy, have you written up a mission report yet?" Rouge inquired, avoiding the question.

Amy looked at her in suspicion.

"No, but after I do there's something we need to talk about," Amy responded with a waver in her voice while looking at the floor. She was probably thinking about if what was said in the diary was true.

"The mission report?" doubted Rouge, "We didn't find anything interesting, let alone important since Eggman deleted the diary and tried to kill us."

"Yes, that's partially true. I accidentally saved the diary but I haven't read it. I'll read it by tonight." Amy replied.

Rouge's eyes lit up.

"You saved it? You're a genius, Pinky!" Rouge cheered while ruffling Amy's quills.

Shadow just sat back into the hospital bed. There was too much going on and he felt my body relax. It was so comfortable. As he heard Amy and Rouge continue to talk, he felt himself drifting off further and further into sleep.

* * *

**Location: Tails' Workshop/Residence**

**8:32 pm**

After everybody left, Cream called her mother asking to stay over at Tails' workshop while Blaze accompanied her. Cream was currently tidying up in the kitchen after making food for everyone, Tails was busy tinkering with something again and Blaze decided to ponder in the corner, waiting to drop her home with Tails. Silver was out on the balcony meditating. That left Sally and Sonic to walk upstairs to the guest room.

Sally was currently mumbling about how she wasn't used to sleeping on a double bed or something so Sonic looked up at her, about to reply. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. Sally didn't notice and continued to ramble on about it, so he weakly put on hand over his stomach and growled at her.

"Would you just be quiet for a goddamn minute?" Sonic snapped. Then he looked up at her in apology. He hadn't meant it rudely. She was silent and shot him a nasty look before replying in an unhappy tone.

"Sonic, usually I'd scold you but I can see something's up. Want me to get you some water and call Tails?"

Sonic rolled his eyes and tried to force a signature grin on his face to let her think that he was okay. Again, feeling another sharp pain and nausea, it felt like his energy was running out quickly. He was on the brink of passing out. As his vision started to blur out, he could hear the muffled voices of Sally calling out to Tails and the rush of footsteps.

Oh God...were the after-effects of the machine coming to haunt him now?

* * *

**Location: G.U.N HQ**

**9:17 pm**

As Amy and Rouge walked back through the car park to find a G.U.N car to borrow, Rouge couldn't help but wonder what it was like for Amy to be in Cadet training. She was just supposed to be a Cadet that G.U.N sent out on missions that nobody wanted to do or paperwork nobody wanted to check. Rouge wondering how she made it on to a team or even out of that office. The fact that Amy held out for this long was part of the evidence.

As Rouge opened the car door she looked at the outfit Amy had decided to wear. While she was still in her battle clothing, she had on a beige turtleneck, black jeans, furry brown boots and an autumn orange scarf. It seemed she had good taste in clothing, yet bad taste in self-care. Her face was starting to breakout, her nails were a mess and her hair had split ends. Rouge needed to fix that.

They drove mostly in silence the rest of the 15 minutes back to their home due to night traffic. While they were stuck in traffic, Rouge offered to start up a conversation.

"So, Amy, I was wondering...what was your training in the Apprentice programme like?" Rouge asked while staring at Amy's hands on the steering wheel.

She stared blankly at Rouge but Rouge could tell Amy was wondering why she had brought it up out of the blue.

"Well...In my opinion, it was very gruelling. One minute you thought you could relax and the next you had to do something else. The paperwork was hard to get around. You had to understand a lot of things at once to sort it and type it all up, then save it on to 2 extra drives in order not to lose it. Then keep one of those drives safe. The training was the hardest for me though. My muscles ached day after day even though I made sure to stretch, massage with essential oils, meditate. It took a lot of willpower to keep myself sane you know? And the missions got harder one after the other."

She paused for a second before continuing.

"You would think after all those years after being on the freedom fighters, I'd be in athletic shape but how could I be when I was made to do as little as possible to 'stay out of trouble'? I have to admit, I should have stepped up my game a long time ago but I'm stronger now. Well, I think I am. You would also wonder if the missions would have been easy since we're 'newbies' but it turns out they gave us the hardest missions first to test who would be the strongest and who would be more likely to survive. Our first ever mission was the hardest because we had to infiltrate the base of an extremely dangerous terrorist group with very little equipment. They did that to us to see how well we would adapt that that sort of environment. But...everyone was so excited to go on their first mission, they let their guard down, went in with arrogant attitudes and died."

Rouge looked down at her lap trying to take in all this information. Truth be told, at first, she didn't want Amy to be on her team because Rouge thought she would be slowing them down, not knowing that she had to go through all that. Regardless, Rouge still had a few more questions for her. As the car slowly started to move after the traffic was clearing, Rouge spoke again.

"So, Amy. How did you eventually make it on to our team after experiencing all of that?"

Amy concentrated on the road while looking uncomfortable with the question. She answered anyway.

"I had to tell myself not to give up. Not yet. The stuff they put us through wasn't the best, but I knew if I was stuck in that negative mindset that I wouldn't get very far. I wanted to be assigned to your team and become an agent because I knew I was capable of so much more. It didn't take long for me to be assigned to a team and I'm grateful I got this chance. Teaming up with ex-villans like you guys would eventually teach me new things."

Rouge grit her teeth together to stop herself from smiling or laughing at that cringey speech but then it dawned on her. Rouge was always too quick to judge. What Amy was saying was correct and had a point. And although Rouge was usually not a person for sympathy, Amy was still a comrade. And Rouge should be grateful for the way Amy's treated her ever since she's come on their team even though they haven't treated her the best.

Rouge reluctantly decided to speak.

"Well Amy, as much as it pains me to say this...what you went through was very sad. I'm not the best with words as intelligent as I seem and I'm not good with emotions, but I can pick up on when I'm feeling grateful that you decided to join our team. I'm not one for long speeches either but...I'm sorry for that test I put you through during the mission. It wasn't right of me to do that. I was chosen to be in G.U.N because. of my battle, thieving and hacking skills to do work to help the nation but you had to go through all that training just to be here. I'm willing to accept you as my...comrade." Rouge responded, wincing at that last word.

Amy looked shocked but then recovered with a mischievous smirk.

"Aww, Rouge are you asking me to be friends with you~?" Amy chirped out while poking Rouge's arm. Rouge held the urge to laugh.

"Don't push it, pinky," Rouge replied with a smirk.

"Aww? Even besties?"

"No. Shut it." Rouge retorted. She faltered with a mock pout and pulled in to the car park.

They were finally back home. What a long day...


	17. 14 Facing Troubles

**Hey there! If you're new to the story and have seen the new updates I have made to the chapters, carry on reading.**

**If not, I suggest you re-read the chapters so that everything can make sense to you, though you're free to continue reading.**

**Alright, I'll let you read now.**

**I'm responding to some of your comments :)**

* * *

**Comments Responses:**

**Amefloza13:** I'm sorry for being so evil uwu, I won't do it again I promise. And I promise to continue writing. :) Thank you for reviewing, I love to reply to your reviews.

**pinksakura271:** Sorry about the April Fools joke, I had too much imagination for the story that I just forgot to use it on the joke lol. I'll never delete this because of all the effort and because of people like you who leave me kind replies, I appreciate it so much! Everyone is getting used to their new lives slowly, especially Shadow and Amy. Rouge is getting used to the new emotions that she can't run from... Sonic thought he had gotten away with those after-effects and he hasn't. He didn't run fast enough XD. Thank you for reviewing, I love to reply to your reviews.

**KayALee:** I'm working on it :)...

**StarLord Master:** It seems like you're enjoying the story so far, I like to read your hilarious straightforward reviews and I'm looking forward to seeing you around so stay tuned :) Thank you for reviewing, I love to reply to your reviews.

* * *

**Thursday 14th September**

**Location: Tails' Workshop/Residence**

**7:01 am**

As the sun's rays poked through the curtains, it caused a certain cobalt hedgehog to stir. He woke up to the familiar walls of his room. Groggily rubbing his eyes, he felt a sudden pain from below and looked over to his wristwatch for the time. He had woken up surprisingly early today.

**'Why do I feel like all my energy has been zapped from my body?' **Sonic thought to himself.

As he sat up comfortably against his bedrest, his memories suddenly shifted back to what took place last night.

**(Flashback.)**

_"Sally, I'm fine.", Sonic grunted out, "Don't bother Tails, he's working on something."_

_Sally looked over to Sonic with a stern face. He was always like this when he was ill; stubborn and putting up a front like he was okay. And he wasn't._

_"Sonic,", Sally stated with a warning tone to her voice, "Stay there while I get Tails. You're unwell. Stop being ridiculous."_

_Sonic felt bad for making Sally be so forward with him so he decided to listen to her, even if being ordered around made him feel like a child. With another wave of pain and fatigue forcing him to sit against the wall, he managed a grin and a response._

_"Alright, Cap'n Sal. Do your thing."_

_She sighed and left with a tiny smile on her face after his joking around. All he remembered was passing out after that._

**(Flashback ended.)**

"Good morning, sleepyhead.", someone chuckled with a playful tone.

The voice caused Sonic to snap out of his thoughts and flashbacks as he was greeted by his girlfriend, Sally. She wore a white turtleneck jumper, black leggings and brown boots. She also had on a pair of black gloves. She also had her hair down as usual.

Sonic wanted to get up and hug her, but his energy wasn't at it's fullest, even after 9 hours of sleep. Regardless, he couldn't stay here for the day. He looked down at himself and saw that he was still in the same clothing that he wore yesterday and decided that he had to do the activity he hated most. Washing.

"I'll leave you to get ready, the gang are coming over in a bit to find out what we need to report on the mission. And I need to talk to my parents, they've seemed anxious lately,", she spoke.

He looked up at her and nodded with a grin.

"Alright Sal, I'll be down in a bit,", he said

Sonic looked around trying to process everything. Sally must have slept in one of the guest rooms and Cream must have been dropped home by Tails.

Sonic and Tails both lived in this house because they moved in 1 month ago since they had signed a deal to work with G.U.N for a while, so they had moved everything closer. It meant that travel had been complicated for everyone, but it was the only choice they had. Plus Sonic was 21 so he was old enough to live with his best bud in a house by themselves. Plus it was out of the way so that if any of the civilians tried to find out where they lived then that wouldn't be a problem.

The ground floor had Tails' workshop, which was big and had a garage, which led out to a runway which his oversized X-tornado was comfortably parked on. There was also a huge living room that was usually used for meetings which had 2 sofas, lots of bean bags, a coffee table and a large TV. It was also always left in a tip since the gang would come over and leave the place untidy.

That would leave Cream trying to tidy up the place and Charmy volunteering to help Cream because he wanted her to notice him. Cream would accept his help, thinking he was doing it out of goodwill. That would leave Tails' feeling uncomfortable after dusting off whatever machine he was working on and telling them both to go home, and not bother themselves, as this was his place and he should keep it tidy. Charmy would pout and glare at tails before volunteering to take Cream home with him since they lived next to each other. What a scenario.

There was also a big kitchen on the ground floor to satiate the two males ever-growing hunger for chilidogs. Thanks to Sonic, it was all they ever ate. Sonic was an expert at making them, surprisingly, but it couldn't compare to the ones that Cream, (and Amy, when she used to be on the team, could make). Sally would just shake her head with a smile on her face when she would see the two mobians munching down the food.

On the first floor, there was a spacious bathroom, Sonic's Room and 2 guest rooms. There was also a balcony with stairs leading up to the roof, where sonic spent most of his days when he wanted to sleep or (rarely) didn't feel like running. And there was also a room with mission equipment and other equipment such as building materials and other parts if an emergency base needed to be built.

And lastly, on the second floor, there was Tails' room, a bathroom, a small library and another guestroom. In between all these rooms was a balcony leading to the roof which had a fence around it, a small pool, 2 hammocks and a table tennis table, where silver and knuckles would constantly fight over how to play.

**AN: (Sorry for the house tour.)**

Sonic weakly swung himself out of bed and left his bed in a mess. He then removed his wristwatch and grabbed his towel, deciding that he was going to take a shower instead of a bath since he disliked water. As he stepped into the bathroom and turned the lock on the door, he started to get ready for the day.

* * *

**Location: Team Dark's Residence**

**7:56 am**

Today was a late start for team Dark. It had been a relaxed morning since both Amy and Rouge had their energy depleted from yesterday's mission. Omega was still making a low sound from charging and Rouge was still sound asleep. The only one up was a pondering Amy.

They were supposed to start work in the office today at 9 am sharp to write up a report on the mission, report to the C.E.O of G.U.N about it and then sort out any unfinished paperwork. It would be Amy's first time working in Team Dark' office and she had extra things to do such as move things from her old desk and move the rest of her things out of her old Cadet room. She also wanted to help fix up the place Team Dark lived in because she realised that it was a mess and nobody wanted to clean it up, especially the balconies.

**'She would ask for the key later,'** she thought.

Amy swung herself out of bed and took in the surroundings of her new bedroom. She didn't think that she would settle in so fast after only 2 days. It felt like home. But she only had an hour left before work started so she decided to get ready. As Amy headed downstairs while rubbing her sleepy eyes she walked past Rouge's door hearing her snore away to her heart's content. Amy decided to leave her be and get started on breakfast. She was considering cooking breakfast for her team but it was just her and Rouge in the house. So Amy decided on some cereal, fruit and juice. After that, she made a smoothie and put it in her handbag for work. She then had a shower and freshened up before combing her naturally wavy quills into a low side ponytail. Then she wore a peach long-sleeved sweatshirt, a black skirt and red heels. She then got her working bag and headed to the door.

"Amy,", Rouge stated.

Amy flinched and turned around not expecting Rouge to be awake.

"Oh hey...how was your sleep?", Amy asked.

Rouge held her lips in a thin line.

"Why didn't you wake me up?", Rouge asked with her eyebrow raised.

Amy sweatdropped nervously. She didn't know how things worked around here.

"Well, I didn't want to disturb you from your sleep,", Amy replied.

Rouge chuckled.

"I'll let you off this time, but next time wait for me. We have to return the G.U.N car, remember?"

Oh. Amy had forgotten about that.

"Ah, I guess I'll wait for you to get ready.", Amy sighed.

Rouge nodded triumphantly and flew upstairs.

Amy looked around her new home curiously. She wondered if she would like it here or get used to it, after all, she didn't expect to be living with Rouge and Shadow. Living with Shadow was unheard of. She thought that he would be the type to live by himself. That's it, she needed to try to get closer with everyone. Easier said than done though...she thought. Amy had so many things that she wanted to do though. After not being able to have freedom as an apprentice agent, she wanted to go around the town for a change and see what she could do. Shopping, eating out and maybe even going to the beach in the summertime.

While Amy waited for Rouge to return, she turned on the news. She hadn't checked it recently as she knew her name would be all over the news proclaiming that she had 'quit' the freedom fighters.

"...Moving on from the Freedom Fighters, the forecast for the weekend and all through next week is surprisingly warm, especially for autumn. Temperatures soar and vary at 84F-90F, (29C-32C). Swimwear shops are going to be full!"

Amy gasped. This was her chance to take care of the outside garden and pool. Why not make use of it during the wonderful weather?

"I'm back," Rouge stated.

Rouge was dressed in a white sweatshirt and a black skirt with red heels. Amy expected Rouge to wear her normal outfit from when she last saw her a couple of years ago, but it looked like the bat had a varying taste in clothing. Amy snapped out of her train of thought and turned off the TV.

"The news just said that there was going to be a heatwave Rouge," Amy chirped a little too happy.

Rouge cocked a brow. What did this have to do with anything?

"Uh...so? What about it?" Rouge asked.

"We're going to utilise it," Amy responded.

Rouge sighed at Amy. The pink hog was always so straightforward, never asking questions. Rouge shook her head at the girl.

"Alright, let's get a move on. We're going to be late." Rouge asserted with Omega flying behind them.

* * *

**Location: Westopolis, Tail's Workshop/ Residence**

**8:43 am**

The gang were gathered in the living room trying to figure out what to write on the mission report. They had argued about it for an hour and frankly, the mobians had had enough of each other.

"Listen!" Sally shouted, "I'm saying that this is the best method. We'll get into trouble if we had mentioned that we had hurt one of their Agents."

"How can you say that's the best method when we don't even know what the heck happened to Team Dark huh?" Knuckles yelled.

All the arguing was getting on Team Chaotix's nerves. In this situation, of course, they would feel superior. They were detectives, they knew how to piece information together.

"Alright, alright. Break it up." Vector announced, "Let us handle this. We'll take on the mission report. Can we all be dismissed for the day? This meeting is getting us nowhere."

"Right." Sonic groaned, "Just let us know what you've written so that we can all agree on it and let me know when you've handed it in."

Everyone groaned and went their ways. Some people split such as Charmy, Espio and Vector. Everything had been so awkward because of what had happened the day before. They didn't know what to think of each other or whose side to be on. Letting Team Chaotix handle things would be troublesome but they didn't have any other option. Silver, however, wanted to talk to Blaze on the balcony.

"Blaze...you alright? You've been uncomfortable since yesterday." Silver inquired.

Blaze stayed silent with a burning flame in her hand. She had always promised herself that she was supposed to stay calm and over the years had eventually learned to rely on others. But now, it looked like she was backtracking to her old self again. She should be grateful that she was even alive in this dimension thanks to Tails. Then her thoughts shifted to what she had done to Amy. That was not like her at all. What was she doing?

She was supposed to be collecting the last sol emerald for her world but she had decided to stay for a little while to help out Sonic to return the favour. They were working to also bring Cosmo back to life as well but hadn't succeeded yet. Due to Blaze, they had taken missions from G.U.N to get the Chaos emeralds that Sonic needed because they were keeping them safe in their base. G.U.N only had 6, while the last one's whereabouts were known to be with Team Dark. And Blaze had been storming into each of Eggman's bases trying to find the last Sol Emerald. She was running out of time. It was only a matter of time until both their worlds started to merge and cause a disaster. Tails could only hold both her and Silver's presence off for so long. It had been years since she had returned to their timeline.

"Blaze? Are you just going to ignore me?" Silver asked softly while putting an arm around her and snapping her out of her thought process.

Blaze leaned into her best friend. If there was one thing she couldn't do around him, it was carrying the whole world on her shoulders. Maybe she had backtracked into her old self while she was here. She had to answer Silver though. As naive as he was, she couldn't lie to him.

"Silver...I know this is going to sound crazy but..." Blaze started, "I think everyone is going back to their past selves..."

Silver cocked a brow.

**'Does she mean everyone is travelling back in time?' **Silver asked himself.

"No, Silver. I can see you're thinking of a stupid conclusion. I'm saying that everybody's not been themselves for these past months." she sighed.

Silver nodded.

"Yeah, I kinda have an off feeling about this." Silver replied

Blaze frowned at him.

**'What on Mobius is this hedgehog talking about? Are we even on the same page here?' **she thought.

Silver half-smiled before continuing.

"I'm talking about Amy. I've got an off feeling about her. I saw those eyes, the ones that are robbed of emotion and robbed seeing things through rationally. She looked vulnerable, even if she put up that cold attitude when we saw her. Like, if somebody offered her evil as a solution, she would take it. And that's not like Amy at all. I'm not sure why, but I think that we need to save her from Team Dark and bring her back here so we could talk some sense into her."

Blaze nodded slowly. Silver had some sense in what he was saying but something along those lines just did not sit right with her. She did want to apologise to Amy though as over the years she had become closer friends with Amy. She didn't want to backtrack on relying on her friends. Maybe she should try to get Amy back on their team.

"What are you guys talking about?" Tails interjected, walking out from where he was hiding.

Blaze blushed and moved away from leaning on Silver while he awkwardly coughed. Silver silently glared at Tails but Tails ignored him and stood in front of the pair.

"As far as I'm concerned, I don't think Amy can go dark or super at all." Tails continued.

_'I'm not so sure about that at this point though.'_ Tails thought. Uncertainty was dangerous.

Silver and Blaze nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

"We should still try to talk to Amy though, this toxicity should be left behind and sorted out." Silver replied.

"Tails? Little buddy?" a voice called out.

Tails turned his head to the door. Sonic was searching for him.

"Yeah? What's up?" Tails answered.

"We need to talk," Sonic declared.

* * *

**Location: G.U.N HQ, Team Dark's Office**

**9:03 am**

Amy uncomfortably walked onto the elite office's floor, which was the 23rd floor. The other agents looked very youthful, some around her age or maybe older. They were mostly female. Half of the females looked quite serious as some of them typed away with their office doors wide open, while some of the apprentice agents assisted in helping them with their work. Some of the males looked at Amy and whistled at her rudely. Amy shuddered uncomfortably. If she had gotten this much attention from the males she was surrounded by back then, she'd feel a lot happier. Or maybe they were whistling at Rouge. Amy's self-esteem bounded all over the place as Rouge walked confidently with her head held high. As Rouge combed her hand through her loose wavy hair, she winked at one of the males before diving her hand into her pockets for the office keys.

Amy walked into the office, suddenly feeling awkward. She never imagined herself to be cooped up in a little office. She was more of an adventure person. Regardless, it was better to do a bit of both. There seemed to be an empty desk so Amy set her bag down on it.

"You really wanna sit next to Shadow that bad huh?" Rouge teased.

Amy sighed. This bat always knew how to get under someone's fur, whether she teased or not.

"Where else do you want me to do my work, on his lap?" Amy sarcastically suggested.

Rouge laughed.

"Yeah, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Amy just turned on her heel.

"I'm going downstairs to get my paperwork and other things from my desk on the 3rd floor. Would you like me to get a coffee for you on the way back?" Amy asked.

"Sure thing Pinky, just don't be too long. We need enough time to visit Shadow and do what we need to do." Rouge responded.

Amy nodded and headed out of the office. As she was walking toward the lift, she looked around the floor. It was different from the rest of the floors. Less stressful, more elegant and quiet. It seemed like the higher your rank was, the more luxury you were provided with. It seemed like even the Guardian Unit of Nations had prejudice inside of their HQ.

As Amy entered the lift, she wondered what was in store for her in the next coming week. There was a lot to do today, over the weekend which she had off and the work she would be doing in the next week. She wondered if she could end up getting closer to her comrades and getting used to her new home. After all, in only 8 weeks, her life had changed a lot. The sound of the lift doors opening snapped her out of her thoughts.

She quickly walked over to her desk and started tidying up her papers. She packed some of them away into a small bag. She collected her old desk keys which she would hand in at the end of the day and looked into the drawers that she had left open due to the excitement of being assigned to the team. She collected everything from there but noticed that her USB and work notebook had gone missing.

"Looking for something?" a scorning voice spoke.

Amy froze in her place and reluctantly turned around to face a black cat with blue hair and orange eyes. Her name was Mya. She had made Amy's life a living hell and she was currently a level 6 cadet. Even though Amy was now her superior, this cat always found some way to bring her self esteem crashing down. Amy frantically looked to see that Mya held the USB drive in her hand and the notebook in the other.

Oh god. Wherever Amy went, trouble followed.


	18. 15 Facts and Flashbacks

**AN: Hello there! Sorry that my update was a little later than usual. I'll explain why. I was writing this chapter and it deleted 700 words of my work that I couldn't get back. I was so upset about it that I abandoned the story for a bit. But then I came back because I know that I have the power to imagine something even better. I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Also, check out the other new Chapter called, ****"Pink Annoyance Story Info."**

**You'll find missing answers there. My PMs are always open, so any ideas for the story info or anything I've missed would be useful if you mention them to me so I can improve. ****I'll be responding you your comments in this Chapter tomorrow since it is 4 am and I'm publishing this after writing 5k words on a phone lol. I will also be tidying up other chapters that have spelling and grammar mistakes so you might get the "Story Updated." Notification quite a bit when I edit tomorrow. ****Okay, without further ado, let's stop stalling and get onto the Chapter. ****PS. I love all of you reviewing and for 7k reads. I appreciate it. **

**P.S.S. Happy Spring/Sakura season!**

* * *

**Time to respond to your reviews!**

**Starlord**** Master:**** The theme of this story can be found in the Chapter: Pink Annoyance Story Info which is now the first chapter of this story :). Yes, Rouge is more unstable that everyone thinks. I always enjoy reading comments, they motivate me and give me something to enjoy about writing this story. Tails is always tinkering with something because that's what a curious genius like him likes to do. One thing that hasn't changed about Amy is that she isn't afraid to show people what she is thinking. Happy May :)**

**Nebula the Hedgehog:****I agree with you. Team Dark has trouble trying to accept the blame, especially Sonic. Sonic does need to get his head out of the clouds, I agree :) At least he's realising his mistakes now thanks to Knuckles. Happy May :)**

**Amefloza23:** **Yep, Amy is settling into her team pretty quickly and she sort of gets on well with Rouge, she's off to a good start. Also, no spoilers :) We'll see if there will be a dark Amy soon. I also agree with you, returning to the team hat hurt her would be awkward, not a good idea lol. Let's see if she'll better off in Team Dark. And yes, it would be better off respecting Amy instead of suffering in G.U.N. Happy May :)**

**theflamingpanda:** **No, Mya will not be playing a big part in the story, she's more of a side character that you may see on different occasions, but she will not be playing a big part in the story. Also, thank you and I can't wait to see you on my other chapters. Thank you for Reviewing and Happy May :)**

**That's enough of your time, isn't it? You can read now :)**

**Enjoy :)**

* * *

**Location: Westopolis, G.U.N ****HQ**

**9:03** **am**

Amy closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She didn't want to disturb anyone or cause a scene. With Mya around, it was like stepping on a ticking bomb. You could set her off at any moment.

"So?" Mya spoke, "You're not gonna greet me?"

Amy grit her teeth together. She didn't have time for this.

"Mya." Amy stated calmly, "Put the USB stick and the notebook down."

Mya wiped the evil smirk off of her face and replaced it with a dirty look. How dare she talk to her like a child?

"Okay, little miss _senior_. But first, answer me this." Mya replied.

Amy's tried not to get her quills bristled in anger. She had taken the time to style her hair today and she was _not _about to let the problematic cat stand in the way of her new job. Amy's eyes locked onto Mya's as she started to speak again. Her hands started to shake in nervousness but she was determined to get her stuff back and leave. She didn't want to cause any trouble for her team.

"I just want my stuff so that I can go back to my office." Amy hissed.

"I. Don't. **_Care._**" Mya growled.

Amy tried to walk past her to get help, but Mya stood in her way.

"Seems like you don't care much for your USB drive and notebook. Well, if you try walking past me now...I will make sure to break this drive with a snap of my hands and wipe your pathetic notebook with my _ass. _So I suggest you answer my question, _Special Agent Amy."_

Amy looked at her in disgust as Mya left a pathway open for her to walk past and get help. Amy felt so humiliated by the people watching. Mya always had to make her feel vulnerable. Ever since she had gotten here she was continuously put down again and again. She was starting to feel desperate.

"Fine. I'll answer your little _question._" Amy snarled. She was running out of patience.

Mya smirked as she clapped her hands together and put the items on the table. Amy quickly grabbed at them and put them in her bag. She still had to answer the question, she knew Mya would not let her leave.

"How the hell did you get promoted to Special Agent when you're just a weak little Apprentice?" Mya snapped.

Amy flinched at the insult. She didn't blame Mya for feeling like this as everyone else in the office could have been there for years. But she got promoted in 2 months.

"Maybe if you all work harder...you can get promoted?" Amy replied with a small voice.

Mya burst out into dark laughter.

"Oh? Work harder for _what_? I've been stuck on fucking level 6 for 2 years Amy. And what happens to me? I work my _ass _off on assisting arrogant pieces of shit who have _your _job position. But you? You get special treatment. Just because you're an ex freedom fighter. Just because you look like a little innocent _princess_." Mya growled.

Amy tried to keep her tears in. She refused to let them fall. Not in front of this girl who accused her of things that weren't in her control. The worst part about it was that it was true. She had worked her way in here and within 2 months, she became a Special Agent.

"Well, I'll tell you what. With that crybaby attitude you have and that arrogance, you're nothing but a pathetic talentless hedgehog. No wonder why people didn't see you in the news whenever Sonic and his friends were fighting to _save the world_ while you were to busy getting fucking caught like a useless little _child._"

Amy slammed her hands down on the table, hard. She was never seen in the news because her friends never allowed her to help out at all. Amy startled Mya who glared at her hostility as she slowly walked towards her and grabbed her by her wrist, almost breaking her arm with her strength. Amy had never known herself to be this violent but all she knew was that at that moment, she felt true anger.

"You have no _right _to assume that about me, little miss _knows it all._" Amy hissed.

Mya's eyes widened as she had never seen this side of Amy before. Mya shook Amy's hand from her wrist as she grabbed Amy by her collar.

"Don't speak to me like that." Mya spat as she narrowed her eyes.

They both froze as they heard clapping coming from behind them.

"Mya Sullivan." a voice icily stated.

The girls both turned around to see Rouge standing there with another G.U.N agent who was a brown weasel who stood next to her.

"I sent my agent down here to collect her stuff. Not to have you break multiple rules with the intent to insult an Agent on my team."

Mya turned around and glared. Boy was she in deep trouble. She ran her free hand through her dark blue hair and sighed.

"What rules have I broken?" she snapped.

Rouge looked at her nails with a bored expression.

"Oh, I don't know...Maybe it could be taking things that don't belong to you, swearing up a storm at your _senior _of all people and the fact that you're still holding on to my agent's collar."

Mya's eyes widened as she stepped away from Amy. Amy brushed herself off and just stared at the scene unfolding in front of her eyes. She didn't know what to say or how to react.

"Since Amy is not only my agent but also my friend, I'll make sure than your punishment is very thorough. Such as suspension. Do you agree on this, Amy?"

Mya looked up at Amy with pleading eyes. Amy stared back at her, unsure of what to say but knew what she wanted to choose.

* * *

**Location: Westopolis, Tails' Workshop/Residence**

**10:00 ****am**

Sonic quietly sat in Tails Workshop as he pondered quietly. Sonic called him into there and had a conversation with him about it but something about the way Tails responded just didn't sit quite right with him.

**(Flashback.)**

_"Hey, how are you feeling Sonic?" asked Tails._

_Sonic looked around to see if anyone was in the workshop before he replied in a hushed tone._

_"I'm doing great. Say, could you analyse that nightmare that I had the other day? It's been bugging me for a while now." Sonic replied._

_Tails sighed and slumped his shoulders. He didn't want to admit that he was frightened by that creature. His gut instinct told him that it was Amy and he sure did not want to get to the bottom of it. Still, Sonic was a friend._

**_'A friend in need is a friend indeed.' _**_Tails thought. He had to help Sonic._

_Tails yanked an office chair over to his desk and sat down on it while connecting a few cables from the machine to his computer. He transferred the files from the machine and saved it into a folder. He then opened a picture editing software and began to get rid of the blur and pixels of the creature._

**_'It wasn't clear, but that just looked like Amy with lighter fur.' _**_Tails thought. What form was Amy supposed to be? It looked like a nightmare. As far as he knew Amy didn't have any power except her piko piko hammer, which was solely based on physical contact with something. Unless there was something that she hadn't told them. _

**_'I'll get to the bottom of this.'_**

_Sonic was sitting impatiently while tapping his foot. Tails didn't know what to tell him._

_"Tails? Are you done yet? I wanna make some chilidogs for the both of us." Sonic announced, eyeing Tails suspiciously._

_Tails snapped out of his thoughts. Sonic already had a lot of stress on his shoulders and he didn't need any more. Tails would keep this to himself for now and investigate before jumping to conclusions._

_"Well Sonic, I'd advise that you don't worry about it. With all the things going on recently, it's probably just a normal nightmare." Tails stated while not looking him in the eye._

_Tails was met with silence and an unreadable face. He didn't like lying to his best friend but he didn't want to stress him further. He uncomfortably drooped his ears __sadly as he walked out of the room leaving Sonic to think._

_"I'll go make us some chilidogs." announced Tails before exiting the Workshop, not waiting for Sonic's reply._

**(Flashback Ended.)**

"Just a normal dream, eh?" Sonic whispered to himself. That was _not_ normal. A pink hedgehog slapping him _so_ hard in his face that he **_flew_**, talking negatively about him and his friend, **_threatening_** him and looking so much like Amy was not normal.

"Amy," he whispered to himself as he felt his heart skip a beat. Every time he did this a great wave of guilt and sadness washed over his body.

He had mentioned her name again. Every time he did, flashbacks would appear in his head. Some of them reminding him of the annoying times that she harassed him and some of them too emotional for his liking. Not that she knew he thought that.

He felt butterflies arise in his stomach as he knew he would be seeing her again soon after so long...

'So long?', It had only been 2 months. He didn't want to admit it but a week without Amy on the team made the team dysfunctional. He remembered the first week that she had left so clearly. There was one day where he snapped when somebody brought her name up.

**(Flashback)**

_"Alright buddy, you ready to go?" Sonic prompted._

_They were going out on a mission and getting ready to leave. Tails looked around to see if anyone else was left before locking the door to his home. He didn't hear Sonic because there was something on his mind. Sonic looked at him confused. Usually, Tails was able to speak while thinking of something entirely different but now, he was completely silent._

_"Sonic..." Tails began, "Do you think we're alright like this?"_

_Sonic raised a brow in question. What was he on about?_

_"I'm talking about Amy—" ,Tails replied, but got cut off. Sonic put a firm grip on his shoulder._

_"Don't mention that name...we haven't seen her for a week and she's moved out. She's not coming back Tails." Sonic snapped._

_Tails sighed in exasperation. He wanted to find Amy, he even tried searching all over the area where she lived. Even though he was a genius, he couldn't find her._ They had even formed search parties.

_"B-but Sonic, what if something bad happened to her_—"

_Sonic silenced him with a finger. He refused to believe anything had happened to her. He figured that the best way to keep going on was to cut her from his thoughts completely, but it hadn't seemed to work. Why was she constantly on his mind anyway? It's not like they were even in that kind of a relationship...she's just a friend...Yeah, that's it. She was just a friend and he was worried about her._

_"Uh, Earth to Sonic...?" Sally inquired. "You've been saying the same thing for a few minutes and everyone is waiting for you."_

_Sonic mentally facepalmed. He said that out loud. Sonic's ears drooped in sadness. He had felt bad for arguing with her like that. He thought that this was like these other arguments where she would come back and apologise and they would hang out as friends but it turns out that she was gone for good. Sally sighed and put her hand on his shoulder._

_"Listen Sonic, it's no use worrying about Amy now. It's stressing you out. If Amy can't handle us being in a relationship, then she has no respect for you. She wasn't a good friend, she was just toxic."_

_Sonic glared and growled at Sally. She flinched as she wasn't used to this kind of coldness from him. Maybe she wouldn't have said that. Even so, she was his girlfriend. She was not going to let a little girl break down the team or her relationship with him. She had to do this. Though, what Sonic said caught her by surprise._

_"Sally, don't talk about Amy that way. I've known you longer than her but I won't tolerate it. She is a nice, sweet and caring person but she isn't toxic. She's my friend."_

_Sally sighed. She knew better than to insult his friends and upset her boyfriend. She just wanted a happy life and relationship._ Who was Amy to Sonic to get in the way of that?

_"Sorry, Sonic. Just know that you're not the bad guy in all of this. Friends disagree all the time. Let's not make this into a big thing." Sally spoke softly._

_Sonic flashed a sad grin at her. He did want to be mean. Maybe it was best not to make this into a big thing after all._

**(Flashback Ended.)**l

"Make this into a big thing, huh?" Sonic sadly whispered while chuckling to himself. They were way past the point of no return to call it a 'friendly disagreement.'

"Yeah, yeah Rouge...okay. We'll see you tonight if the answer is yes, and _stop calling me **Knuckie**_." a voice announced.

Sonic frowned and looked up to see knuckles walking into the workshop with his communicator projecting Rogue on it. It looked like she was at work as she leaned back in her office. She had a flirty smirk displayed on her muzzle as she looked distantly at her nails. Sonic was shocked to see that hot-headed knucklehead had allowed the bat to even communicate with him.

"Alright, _Knuckie._ Make sure you say hello to big blue for me, tell him I'm not one to take no for an answer. Also, make sure to bring me something shiny...like the master emerald." Rouge teased at she winked at him.

Knuckles' eye twitched a little as he remembered the times where the bat would threaten to make the island fall.

"Haha, very funny. Anything _but _the master emerald would have to do. Now quit it and get back to whatever you were doing. Annoying bat." he grumbled.

"You imply that you're gonna get her something? Like a wedding ring?" Sonic joked.

Knuckles cracked his Knuckles as he put the communicator down and glared hard at Sonic. Sonic just sweatdropped and shrugged.

Rouge giggled as she leaned back in her office chair on the projection. She could see the rest of his body because the communicator was now on the table.

"Well Knuckie, thanks for the view. See you tonight," she spoke and winked at him.

Knuckles closed his communicator with a serious face, yet the blush on his muzzle from the flirty bat's comment.

"You two seem like an odd couple. Feelings aren't my type of thing anyway. I'm kinda surprised that you two are dating-" Sonic started but stopped short when he saw that Knuckles was hesitating between growling an insult or punching the soul out of his quills.

"Alright, alright! Knux, relax. What were you guys talking about anyway?" Sonic asked, cocking a brow in curiosity.

Knuckles sighed. He knew it was going to be hard convincing Sonic about this. Heck, it had even taken Rouge a while to convince him to even agree.

"You know how sneaky this bat is. She wants to go on a double date with me, you and Amy."

* * *

**11:24 am**

Amy sat in her office as she typed away on her keyboard while sipping her Vanilla Latte. It tasted warm and sweet. Vanilla was supposed to be calming. It wouldn't get rid of her problems though. Amy sighed and took a break from typing and stared at her aching fingers as she remembered the events that had played earlier.

**(Flashback.)**

_"It's alright, let her go. I forgive her as long as she doesn't bother me again," spoke Amy._

_Rouge looked over at her and rose a brow. She hadn't seen any other agent be so lenient. In this workplace, a hierarchy was present but Amy seemed to ignore all of that._

_Rouge dragged Amy by the arm to the cafe silently and ordered their respective drinks before continuing to drag her back to the office. Amy had just barely closed the door before Rouge started to yell._

_"I send you away to get your stuff for **one** second and you manage to get yourself into all sorts of trouble! What do I have to do, start babysitting you?! Why couldn't you just get your stuff and leave?! It seems like trouble follows you everywhere and I simply **don't have time to put with it.**" Rouge yelled._

_Amy flinched at the bat. She didn't know if Rouge had realised it but it seemed like she cared about her friends more than she cared about jewels in her kind of way. Amy had always looked up to Rouge to be a level headed, intelligent treasure hunter. This batwoman was more unstable than she thought. Amy saw her swing from one attitude to the next. Overall the years Amy hadn't seen her for, she had completely changed._

_However, the way Rouge was going about the situation painted Amy out as incompetent and Amy was not going to stand down and take it. It hadn't been her fault that she had been forced to go on a mission on her first day as a member of Team Dark and it hadn't been her fault that Mya had decided to steal her things. This was unfair. What didn't help was that it was the first day working in the office._

_"Look Rouge, I'm sorry but it's not my fault that Mya decided to take my things, I would've been up sooner if she didn't. So chill out." Amy explained trying to defend herself._

_Rouge set her coffee cup down sharply on the table._

**_"Chill out?!" _**Rouge thought.

_How could Amy address her so casually without caring that Rouge could get her into trouble for it? Since when was she her equal?_

_"Listen here, Amy. Cut the attitude. All I want is a smooth team to work with. Not a Team with a little kid who has a certain habit for finding trouble. It seems like you haven't left your old ways behind you, so let me **remind you where you are.**" Rouge seethed._

_Amy looked at her with a dark glare. Rouge covered her mouth once she had realised her mistake. Amy had snapped a pen that she was holding and as the pieces fell onto the desk next to her, she marched herself over to Rouge and looked her dead in the eye. What was with everyone bringing up her past?_

_"As I said with Mya, **you guys have no right to bring up my past. **So I suggest you shut your nocturnal ass and wake up and realise that the old Amy Rose is gone_ _**forever. **You weren't the one getting beat down by someone else who yelled at me for things that weren't even in my control. I'm over this." Amy snarled._

_Rouge looked startled from Amy's outburst. It made her realise that she had gone a little overboard. Rouge decided to get rid of the awkwardness and cleared her throat._

_"Right. It wasn't good of me to bring up your past, next time just bring me my coffee on time." Rouge sighed while setting her cup down at her PC and logging into her G.U.N account._

_Amy still had her glare fixed on Rouge almost burning holes into the back of her head. Rouge still hadn't apologised..._

_'Then again...', Amy thought, 'This was probably her way of apologising...'_

_Amy shook the thoughts from her head and looked at her bracelet. She had a diary to analyse. She couldn't let a little drama distract her from her job._

**(Flashback ended.)**

Amy banged her fists on her desk in frustration. Why couldn't she have a normal and peaceful life? It was already hard enough knowing that her father could be dead or involved in Eggman's next scheme-

"Amy." a voice stated, snapping Amy out of her thoughts. She looked over at Rouge to see her turned around in her office chair, facing her.

"Are you alright? You've been aggressively tapping your pen on the table for a few minutes and it's distracting me." Rouge continued.

Amy looked at her pen. Bits of it had been chipped away and laid on her desk next to her wrist communicator. Speaking of which, she wasn't supposed to be complaining about how terrible her life was at the moment. She had a job and a purpose. What lay on her desk was the key to unlocking whatever scheme Eggman had seemed to be planning as he had been off the radar for months. She couldn't let her emotions get in the way of what she had to do.

Rouge sighed and took the silence from Amy as anger instead.

"Look, if you're upset about earlier..." Rouge began but bit her lip. Was she about to lay down her pride just for Amy? It wouldn't hurt to apologise, after all, she had used her past against her. Rouge looked at Amy who stared intently at her, waiting for her to continue her sentence. That didn't help at all. However, Rouge was intelligent enough to know that if she didn't apologise, it would put further tension on the team. She was not in the mood for that kind of drama.

"Look, if you're upset about earlier...I'm sorry. Forgive me. Now can we move on?" Rouge quickly snapped while looking away and pouting unhappily.

Amy giggled softly which startled Rouge. Had she just wasted her time conflicting on whether to apologise just for the hedgehog to laugh at her? As soon as Amy saw Rouge frowning at her, she stopped giggling and smiled at her.

"I thought Shadow had trouble apologising, but you're a completely different case," Amy replied.

Rouge looked at Amy with a blank face. She didn't know what to say. It had caught her off guard. It seemed like Amy had forgiven her though so she sighed in relief and ran her hands through her wavy hair. Amy spoke again.

"It's not what happened earlier that I'm worried about." Amy began. Rouge looked at her in wonder.

"I'm going to read what's in that diary," Amy announced.

* * *

**(Flashback.)**

_"D-double date?!" Sonic yelled, "Are you crazy?!"_

_Knuckles winced from the loud outburst. Even though his ears weren't visible, he was very sensitive to the noise. He had already gotten an earful from the bat about how they left them to die in the base and Knuckles had to lay down his pride and apologise to her even though he didn't agree with leaving her and Amy inside of the base. He even got convinced by the evil bat to go on a double date as punishment for it. 'Payback', she called it in the earlier conversation. The things that he did for this hedgehog and the bat when he could be looking after the master emerald on Angel Island and enjoying his solitude instead were ridiculous. Thank God that he had entrusted that task to Tikal. He knew that she would not be easily swayed if someone had tried to take it._

_"Hello? Knucklehead?" Sonic inquired._

_Knuckles snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Sonic. Trying to convince the hedgehog would take quite a while._

_"Don't yell at me, I said what I said." Knuckles replied._

_"Listen to me, Knuckles, I'm not going to the club with Amy as if she's my girlfriend. You know what would happen."_

_Knuckles' eyebrows twitched in anger and he popped a vein. One thing he had managed to control over the years was his temper. By now, he would've clobbered Sonic but Rouge had taught him that the best way to get to someone was to shoot down every single one of their excuses._

_"Amy's not the same before as you saw yesterday Sonic, so you don't need to worry about her. You're not getting out of this."_

_Sonic could see where this was going. He could either run away at the speed of sound and disappear for the night but Knuckles would probably kill him the next day. He could say he was still sick from the machine's after-effects from yesterday but Tails would see straight through that lie and he knew his best friend well enough to try to get him to go too. Or he could beg Sally to somehow get him to stay at her place but Sally and Knuckles would end up clashing._

_However, after all the things that had happened so far, sonic thought that going to see Amy and talking things through with her wouldn't be a bad idea. Plus today was the perfect day for him to go since Sally had a few errands to run later back at the palace so she would be gone for 2 days while she was back in Knothole. He also needed to take a break from the drama, so relaxing and unwinding at the local bar wouldn't be too bad._

_Still, the thought of reuniting with a friend after 2 months out of his life made him feel nervous...and he didn't like it._

_"So I'll take your silence as a yes." Knuckles spoke._

_"What?! No Knuckles I'm not going." Sonic complained._

_Knuckles sighed. He was started to get irritated by the childish behaviour._

_"Give me **one **good reason why you won't go." Knuckles stated._

_"Well for starters Sally might go ballistic if she finds out that I'm going on a double date with someone who used to have a crush on me for years, Amy is WAY too young to even look in the direction of a bar and we have priorities like the mission report."_

_Knuckles chuckled menacingly. Sonic shivered. Did Knuckles have something up his sleeve?_

_"Don't you dare try those dry excuses. Sally doesn't have to know that you're trying to **reconcile** with an ex-friend, Team Chaotix is taking care of the mission report and nobody said you and Amy were going as a couple, you can go as friends. Also, do you even know how old Amy is by now Sonic?" Knuckles challenged._

_"Well duh, she's 16 or something like that...still WAY too young to go to a god damn bar!" Sonic retorted._

_"No you dumbass, she's turning 19 next week...where the heck have you been?" Knuckles replied._

_Sonic looked at himself in the reflection of one of Tails' machines. Had he not been paying attention to her at all? Sonic decided to try one last argument._

_"Sorry Knuckles...after all that's happened, I don't want to see her."_

_"Congratulations Sonic. You've broken the Guinness_ world record for being the fastest liar alive." _Knuckles sarcastically announced._

_Sonic looked at him and frowned. Why did he insist that he must go? He hated being told what to do. He was free like the wind which couldn't be restrained or told what direction to go. He sighed and finally gave in. He stood up and glared at Knuckles._

_"Fine. I'll go to the stupid double date if you insist Knucklehead. I didn't know you wanted to see Rouge that badly." Sonic replied._

Knuckles smirked triumphantly but inwardly rolled his eyes at that last comment. Somehow the hedgehog still found a way to pin the blame on him.

"Well cya Knux, I've got some chilidogs to eat." Sonic chirped.

Knuckles just shook his head at his best friend and chuckled.

"What a fatty."


	19. 16 Discovery and Dissatisfaction

**AN: A quick note here, Pink Annoyance's birthday passed so make sure when you review that you say, "Happy Birthday Pink Annoyance!"****If you see any mistakes or anything, I'm posting this on the bus since I didn't update twice last month.**

**I waited too long, I apologise. But it's here now!****I've hit 7.7k reads on this story and I'm very thankful to my loyal and witty readers. Thank you so so much!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Tails' Workshop**

**Time: 12:00pm**

Sonic sat with his stomach full of satisfaction. The taste of chilidogs always helped him to get his mind off the constant stress that he had to face recently. His relaxation was soon short-lived because as soon as he took a sip of water, the door opened with a stressed looking Team Chaotix.

"Hey guys, how did it go?" Sonic inquired. He had a finger crossed behind his back for good news.

Vector scratched behind his neck, Espio walked upstairs to take deep breaths on the balcony while Charmy buzzed off to find Cream and Tails in the kitchen, not wanting to be part of the news.

"Well...I don't think you're going to be pleased with this." Vector stated.

Sonic frowned in worry.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, uh. G.U.N wasn't impressed with us not finding anything at all. They said that the other team that they assigned had done miles better than us and that if we wanted to get the Chaos emerald, that we needed to work harder for it." Vector explained.

Sonic banged his fists on the table. Before Sonic could speak, Vector said something else that had shocked him.

"They also told me that Shadow is paralysed in the hospital and Rouge's wing got damaged because of us."

Sonic stood up and looked into the distance in confusion. Yes, he was worried about the people he was ordered to hurt but he was surprised that Amy had come out of the base with no bruises at all. If you don't count Blaze's outburst.

"Did you hear anything about Amy from them?" Sonic asked.

"No, they said her cheek was burnt but they said that it was from the mission," Vector replied.

**'So she hasn't told them a thing, huh?' **Sonic thought to himself.

Surprisingly, even though Amy wasn't on the team anymore, she still kept her loyalty. Sonic sighed as he knew he'd be seeing her later on.

"Gather everyone into the living area please," Sonic ordered Vector.

Vector nodded and went to gather everyone who had now returned from their lunch break.

"Hey Sonic, I'm heading out now. Do you want anything before you go?" Sally announced.

Sonic looked at her. They were the only ones in the room right now.

**'I could always be honest with Sal and tell her that I'm going to meet up at the club with Amy and Rouge, but she'd probably flip and force me to come with her.'** Sonic thought.

That would've been a silly move to make though. Why would his girlfriend stop him from trying to see an ex-friend? He wasn't a wuss and he wasn't going to chicken out of this one either. He was Sonic, the Hero. He was going to save himself from the stress and face his problems head-on. Something he wasn't keen on doing but he knew that he had to do it.

"Sonic?" Sally questioned, snapping him out of his train of thought.

"Oh, no Sal, stay safe," Sonic said, giving her a thumbs up.

Sally pouted and folded her arms in mock disappointment.

"Oh really? No affection before I leave?" she teased.

Sonic started to sweat with nervousness. This was not helping the situation at all. He stood up and walked over to hug her. Suddenly, she crashed her lips against his. When she felt Sonic was not returning the kiss, Sally looked up at him with a dejected face and sighed.

"What's wrong Sonic? I'm going away for two days and you're acting strange. Are you hiding something from me?" Sally inquired.

Sonic started to sweat. He was being too obvious about this. He covered up his troubles with a fake smile and kissed her on the cheek.

"I've just got a lot of stuff on my mind, Sal. I'm sorry. Just be careful when you go to Knothole and tell your father I said hi." he replied.

Sally eyed him suspiciously before genuinely smiling and winking at him.

"Alright, see you soon," she spoke and then left.

As soon as he heard the front door close, he relaxed and let go of a breath he didn't realise he was holding.

**'What's taking Vector so long?' **Sonic asked himself.

* * *

**G.U.N HQ**

**12:47 pm**

Saying that Amy was royally pissed off was an understatement. She was fuming. Not only that, but she was feeling all sorts of emotions at the moment. After reading that diary, she could not believe her eyes. On top of that, the news Rouge gave to her wasn't helping the situation at all.

Tapping her fingers angrily on her knees as she waited outside to hand in her mission report, she reluctantly remembered what she had laid her eyes on a few moments ago and grit her teeth together as her quills threatened to bristle in anger and betrayal.

**(Flashback.)**

_Amy swiftly connected her wrist communicator to her computer via Bluetooth. Then she put her USB stick into her computer to save the diary onto there on top of the mission report. She then decided to take a deep breath before opening the diary. She decided to read from the start out loud._

**_Dear Diary,_**

**_I shouldn't be writing like a little child who portrays their little fantasies onto paper, but who else do I have to talk to instead of these useless talking machines? Moving on, these good for nothing freedom fighters have been snooping everywhere and so has G.U.N trying to find out my next plans. Alistair Rose and I have decided to come up with a new plan to crush the freedom fighters first. I have an IQ of 300 and these baffoons think I sit there and do absolutely nothing but design robots. All we need to do is just find out one of their vulnerabilities and exploit it against them. For now, I used Alistair Rose and put him into a container somewhere in this base. He was very unwise to try and trust one of the planet's most evil geniuses._**

_Amy gulped as she continued to read the rest with Rouge standing behind her. She took a deep breath to prepare herself._

**After a while, I looked through Alistair's' background and connections. Of course, I had a good enough reason to leave him in the darn container after I found out that he had connections with the pink brat on the freedom fighters. However, when I checked through some records, I saw that Alistair had done something to his daughter. So I released him and surprisingly, he still wanted to work with me and answered all of my questions. He suggested an idea that would work. Though this base was too dangerous to stay in, I told him to prepare and make plans to visit** **one of our old bases which had the necessary equipment to pull this off.**

_"Damn, why didn't he explain the idea?" Rouge questioned. Had he anticipated that someone was going to read it?_

_"I feel like going to that base is a trap," Amy said, furrowing her brows in confusion and betrayal._

_"Why?" Rouge questioned._

_"Well. for starters, my mother is on holiday with my father right now. Also, do you think Eggman would leave a diary this important hanging around? Also, check out the date it was written." Amy replied._

**_Dated: July 15th XXXX_**

_**"**There's only one way to find out," Rouge responded._

_"Wait. Let me hand in the mission report first." Amy spoke._

**(Flashback ended.)**

Amy whipped her work phone out of her pocket, not caring if the call could be traced. She dialled her mother's phone number. She needed to know where her father was. She had never deemed her father to be an evil person or work with Eggman. She needed to know the truth now.

**Ring Ring...Ring Ring...Ring**—

**_"Hello? Aria Rose here. If you're here to ask me to complete any surveys, I—" _**

"Why hello there, Mother. Long time no see." Amy interposed.

There was silence. Amy's mother hadn't expected to receive a call from her daughter.

**_"Hold on dear, is this Amy?" _**Aria replied in shock.

"Yes mum, I'm calling to see if Dad's there with you," Amy responded, cutting to the chase.

**_"Of course he is dear! You sound so grown up since the last time I've seen you_**—"

"Don't lie to me Aria. This is serious. Where is Father?" Amy growled.

**"..."**

"Well?"

**_"Your father left as soon as he heard the news...that you were no longer with the Freedom Fighters. I tried to ask him to stay, I told him that you were a big girl and that you would be alright but... he insisted that he had important matters to tend to,"_ **she replied.

"Important matters like what, Mum? Leaving you behind? You know you're easily sick and the one time I trust you two to go on holiday without me, you guys do this? Why didn't you call me straight away Mother?" Amy complained.

**_"He insisted that I didn't. That you needed time to yourself because you were probably hurting Amy." _**

"What?! That's a lie! I would need my parents the most in those times to give me advice! I called and called but you never called back. I thought something had happened to you!"

**_"I know, I know. I'm sorry Amelia."_**

"Well tell me this. What did dad do to me when I was younger?" Amy inquired.

**_"Pardon? What are you implying?!" _**her mother sharply inquired.

"You guys told me that the only thing wrong with me was some powers that needed inhibitor rings because of a gene in our descendants. But if that was the case, why don't you wear them?"

**_"...I think you're going to need to ask your father about this."_**

"What?! No, mum, wait—!" Amy growled.

**Beep—Beep—Beep.**

**_"Call ended."_**

"Special Agent Rose?" a hamster called.

Amy struggled not to bristle her quills as she squeezed the poor phone in anger, cracks and damage threatening to appear. Despite this, she smiled calmly at the peach hamster.

"Yes? How can I help?" she answered.

"CEO Honeywell is ready to see you."

* * *

**1:05 pm**

As the Freedom Fighters sat in the living room in taking the information, Sonic bounced his leg on the floor, deep on thought. He had always felt like he was free, in control of what he wanted and needed and never liked being told what to do. Now he was being held down by all these criticisms, responsibilities and relationships. Did he want to do things for other people's sake, and at what cost?

As he thought deeply, he concluded. If G.U.N wanted to take this piss out of this then so could he. He needed to go about this carefully.

"Tails. How do we go about the situation with G.U.N?" Sonic inquired.

Tails frowned, he was confused. What was Sonic trying to imply?

"What do you mean Sonic? We wait for the next mission and tread carefully right?" Tails responded.

Sonic vigorously shook his head with a grin.

"Nope. We take matters into our own hands." Sonic spoke.

Everyone looked at him in shock.

"Sonic, what are you planning? We're not planning to go along with some improvised near-death plan." Knuckles stated.

Sonic chuckled. He knew exactly what he was going to do.

"We don't know what G.U.N is planning, but we do suspect that they are trying to hold some power over us with that emerald. Do they want harder work? We'll give it to them. Then they'll have no excuse. If they do, however, we'll know something's up."

Everyone nodded in agreement. For once, the blue blur had a point.

"And how exactly do you plan to do this?" Blaze asked, eyeing him lazily.

Tails smirked. He finally had something to say.

"Simple. On the next mission they request, they're likely to make it harder for us since they've underestimated what we can do thanks to the last mission report. On this mission, we plan carefully. Usually, they give us missions every two weeks, but they're most likely planning to catch us off guard by sending us earlier. On this mission, we do our absolute best and capture every moment of it with hard, solid evidence." Tails explained.

Soft murmurs travelled around the room. Everyone understood what Tails was saying but was worried about how they were going to pull it off. Without Amy on the team, there wasn't any organisation. Sally was supposed to handle that, but she was on her way to Knothole. Sonic eyed Knuckles to see if he would get the hint and then whispered in Tails ear.

"We'll give them the plan by tonight, right now, we need to discuss something," Sonic whispered.

Tails nodded and announced it. Everyone got up and headed for the door leaving the three heroes in the house.

"So, Sonic. Are you planning to tell Amy tonight?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic chuckled as he saw Tails confusion.

"Even though I don't want to, I'll have to," Sonic replied.

"Can someone tell me what's going on here?" Tails inquired.

"No can do. I have to go treasure hunting tonight. You can ask Sonic though." Knuckles replied with a smug face while walking through the door.

Tails just looked at Knuckles in shock.

"So what's this whole thing about, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Knuckles and I are going on a double date with Rouge and Amy." Sonic quickly stated.

"What?! Amy? What about Sally?" Tails inquired.

"We're just going to talk." Sonic hissed.

Tails looked taken aback.

"Alright Sonic. Whatever you do, don't get drunk." Tails sighed.

His best friend always got himself into all kinds of predicaments.

* * *

**2:00pm**

**(Flashback)**

_Amy walked into the office, mentally astonished. She had never seen an office like this one. Marble floors shined underneath her dull heels. It was like the furniture itself was a designer brand._

_"Ahem." The golden bear cleared his throat. LTC Honeywell sat at his desk, staring straight into her soul._

_"Good Afternoon CEO Honeywell. How do you do?" Amy stated. This talk was too formal of her, but she wanted to make a good first impression._

_The CEO smirked. He had gotten a polite, strong agent today. He _was impressed.

_"I'm impressed with the amount of information retrieved from your mission. However, the understanding of it is very... vague." He blandly stated._

_Amy plastered on a fake smile. She was not in the mood for any bad news today._

_"To piece the lost information together, you must locate and target one of Eggman's old bases and find diaries similar to these. As Elite Agents, you do it yourselves," he spoke, dragging out that last like to see if Amy would react to it._

_Surprisingly, Amy restrained herself, but Rouge didn't. It was like the roles had been swapped._

_"When is this supposed to be done by?" Rouge inquired._

_The CEO smirked cunningly._

_"Two days. Nothing more, nothing less," he stated._

_Rouge looked shocked. She wanted nothing more than to protest but Amy beat her to it._

_"Isn't 2 days a short amount of time to predict where Eggman has_—?"

_"I don't want to hear it, Special Agent Amy. I have high expectations of you since you survived the self-destruction with only a scratch. So do as I say." he spoke._

_Amy suspiciously raised a brow, how did he know about that? She hadn't documented it in the report. The CEO grinned at her reaction._

_"Also, your teammate Shadow needs to be with you on this mission. Elite Agents shouldn't be in the hospital for more than 4 days," he stated._

_"With all due respect sir, Shadow is injured—? Amy started but was cut off by the CEO._

_"Well, he had better find some way to heal. You are dismissed."_

**(Flashback End.)**

Amy was trying her best to keep her cool as she sat next to Shadow, waiting for him to wake up. She had hoped he had healed well but she doubted that as it had only been a day. Still, he was the Ultimate Lifeform. Maybe he had something special in his DNA which could cause him to heal quickly. She gulped nervously as she thought it over. Then she decided that she would check for herself.

She put out her hand to pull the hospital sheets down to his legs. She saw indeed that the gauze had been changed and the injuries on his less had mostly healed and turned into scars.

**'Wow...' **she thought.

She was happy that she didn't have to end up dragging him on a mission while he was injured, but telling him was hard. Amy sighed in frustration, her job made her want to go crazy, ballistic even.

**'Why does everything have to be so unfair...?' **she asked herself.

She then looked at Shadow's sleeping face. She unconsciously blushed. She had never seen Shadow looking so relaxed and peaceful. She felt her heart start to beat faster the more she stared at him.

She looked around the room to see if anyone was watching. Rouge had gone out to get the three of them lunch. Tasha was busy talking to some other nurses.

Without thinking, she trailed her hand up to his chest fur.

**'It's soft and fluffy...' **she thought.

Something that she liked about him.

Amy froze.

**'His chest fur is something I like about him—?'**

"What are you doing?" Shadow spoke.

"Ah! Sh—Shadow! Hey there." Amy replied, nervously sweat dropping.

Shadow raised a brow and sighed. He wasn't going to bother to let her know that he was awake the whole time.

"What brings you here?" he asked.

"Oh...we came to see how you were doing. Rouge went to get some lunch for the three of us," she replied.

Shadow grunted a response. Why did they insist on looking after him like a child? Then again...he could use the company. He sat up in his bed and faced her.

"I see. What's become of the Chaos emerald?"

"Oh...it's in your room."

Shadow scoffed.

"You entered my room?"

Amy looked away from his gaze and tried to change the subject.

"LTC Honeywell mentioned to us that we need to locate another base which is likely to have a diary or some other information that can lead us to Eggman's next plans."

Shadow frowned. He hadn't read the diary nor the mission report.

"He also said that you need to come on the mission with us next week."

* * *

**2:38 pm**

Knuckles walked around Mystic Ruins in search of any treasure. It wasn't only for his girlfriend, however, treasure hunting was something that took his mind off certain things.

He was supposed to be going on a double date today and he was sure it was going to end in disaster. He sighed as he remembered the times he would just relax in his solitude...guarding the master emerald, looking after the Chaos with Tikal and then suddenly having an abrupt change in his life after meeting Rouge.

He wasn't complaining though. Okay, maybe a little.

As he felt the winds pick up, he squinted as a few grains of sand entered his eyes. He hissed in great annoyance as a few tears left his eyes. When all the sand came out, he stared into the direction that his body was pointing. There was a pile of treasure inside the building. He smirked to himself, thinking that he had good treasure hunting skills but still, he mentally thanked those grains of sand. He found a bag of ancient jewellery which Rouge would've been sure to look into and a bag of shiny new pearls.

As he walked further into the building, he squinted as the sun reflected off of a purple object. He grunted in annoyance as he squatted down to look at it.

It was the last Sol Emerald they were looking for.


	20. 17 Confusing Days

**G.U.N HQ Hospital**

**2:40pm**

Today was just not Amy's day. Everyone was insisting and demanding her to do things that she didn't want. Her old colleague came up to her and insulted her, demanding answers and stealing her things. Rouge was unnecessarily rude to her, but she apologised.

It didn't matter though because as Amy took a bite into her meat-filled sandwich she remembered when Rouge had demanded something of her that she had regretted agreeing to.

Then again...her day wasn't that bad...It Rouge's way of trying to cheer her up.

**(Flashback)**

_Rouge came back with a few G.U.N lunch bags. She set one in front of Shadow, gave one to Amy and took one for herself. As Amy poured Shadow a glass of water, she stared as he took a meat sandwich out of the bag. Rouge had gotten them the same thing._

_"So Shadow..." Rouge started in a teasing tone, "How did you enjoy Amy's cooking last night?"_

_Amy ended up almost overflowing the water out of the cup, awaiting his response. If it weren't for Shadow of course._

_"Amy, the water," Shadow stated._

_Amy snapped back to her senses as she gracefully stopped pouring just in time, still facing away from the hospital bed._

_"Don't avoid the question Shadow." Rouge began again._

_Shadow looked over at Rouge. Physically, she was older than him but he knew that mentally she would still have the upper hand in teasing him._

_"It was...decent."_

_As soon as he said that, Amy turned around and gave him the water, smiling genuinely. She had a tiny bit of pink on her cheeks. Rouge decided to take it part notch while they faced each other._

_"Oh, and Shadow, I think Amy's taken a liking to you now."_

_Shadow raised his brow in question. He had only been absent from work from a day and a half. What could have happened while he wasn't there?_

_Amy looked over at Rouge with a don't you dare kind of look. Rouge just smirked with her dark red lipgloss._

_"__Amy's desk is next to yours now. She even suggested sitting on your lap while you do work." Rouge giggled._

_While Amy stuttered out non-mobian noises and lightly slapped her cheeks in embarrassment, Rouge started laughing heartily at the two. Shadow lowly scoffed at Rouge's joke. He thought to himself quietly about it and took a bite out of his sandwich while the two girls busied themselves with their lunch._

_As Rouge finished her sandwich and walked over to the sink to wash her hands, she remembered something._

_"Oh yeah Amy, I didn't tell you did I?" Rouge spoke._

_Amy looked at her, bewildered. She didn't have a good feeling about what Rouge was going to say._

_"After we finish up here, we're going shopping to find you an outfit to go on a double date with Sonic and Knuckles."_

_Shadow stopped eating as stared while Amy had an outburst._

_"Come again?!" Amy shouted._

_Rouge smirked._

_"You can't just go deciding things for me like that Rouge, who knows what will happen? Besides, didn't they try to kill us just yesterday—?" Amy yelled._

_"Pinky, relax. I have a motive behind this." Rouge stated._

_Shadow cleared his throat._

_"Rouge. Rose isn't going." He spoke._

_The two looked at him in shock. They hadn't expected him to care about this_ _or speak for Amy. Was he worried about her or the Team?_

_When Shadow saw them looking at him confused, he covered up the nervousness as he spoke again. This didn't make him look cool at all, especially the fact that he was in a hospital bed._

_"Whatever plan you have, discard it. Amy's unstable already. Do you think if she sees Sonic and he messes up again that she'll be fine as always? You already know how faker and his friends are." he continued._

_"Don't be such a spoilt sport Shadow. You haven't even heard what the plan is. Amy will be fine." Rouge replied._

_"I am **right **here, I can speak for **myself** and I will decide where I am going. Stop deciding things for me, both of you. I will be a **fully grown 19-year-old adult **next week **may I remind you.**" Amy hissed._

_The two other members of team dark flinched from Amy's hostility, one of them being less noticeable. Rouge nervously cleared her throat._

_"Just hear me out. The Freedom Fighters are contracted with G.U.N because they hold 6 emeralds. We can't let G.U.N know that we have the last one, it's dangerous. For these missions, we need the freedom fighters on our side. To do that, we bribe them with the emerald. It's your job Amy to go in there and convince Sonic to work with us. Let him know that they shouldn't mention anything about out Emerald and for extra persuasion, provide him with the information that you found out in the Diary, leaving out your father if possible."_

_Shadow and Amy stared at Rouge with a blank face. What they didn't expect and was confused by was Amy's reaction. Amy smirked and flipped her low ponytail behind her shoulder._

_"Going...actually doesn't sound too bad," Amy replied while picking up her sandwich to finish it._

**(Flashback ended.)**

As Rouge left the room to talk to the nurse, Amy sighed in regret but couldn't help but feel a little excitement and adrenaline for what was going to take place tonight. She would be seeing her childhood crush again. She also had an important role to play while reconciling. Most of all, she wanted to see her brother-like figure Knuckles. The real reason that she wanted to go through with it was...

**'I'm going to make him regret not choosing me and kicking me off the team.' **she thought to herself, chuckling slowly.

"What's so funny Rose?" Shadow spoke.

Amy caught herself and reminded herself that she was being petty.

Amy opened her mouth about to say something but then she saw it. Shadow stared at her in confusion before Amy began to move closer to him. Shadow was about to say something but he held his breath as her left hand landed on his thigh while she moved closer to him. This was the second time she had invaded his personal space without permission. She swiped the crumbs from his sandwich off his cheek with a tissue and then threw the tissue away. Shadow sighed in relief as he knew what the pink hedgehog was capable of, one of her infamous death hugs.

Suddenly he felt his body being held in someone's embrace. Amy was suddenly hugging him. He didn't hug back but he let her continue to hug him even though she didn't need to. It had only been a day and they weren't even that close. So why...?

**'Why is she being so passionate around me?' **he asked himself.

He snapped out of his thoughts as his nose rested on her quills and her face rested near his chest fur. She started to speak.

"I'm so glad you're okay Shadow. I know I shouldn't worry about you because you're the ultimate lifeform and you can take care of yourself."

Shadow continued staring at her in curiosity as she paused.

"But I'm still worried. You don't eat when you're supposed to and sleep when you're supposed to. You always put yourself in danger, even for people you don't know. That's why I'm worried about you."

**'Rich. Worried about me? I'm perfectly fine.' **Shadow thought to himself.

"So I want you to make a promise to me."

Shadow smirked and raised a brow.

"A promise? How childish. You're turning 19 next week." he slightly taunted.

"Shut up Shadow, I'm serious!" Amy said, letting go of him and balling her fists into her lap.

Shadow swallowed his urge to laugh and continued to listen. He could see that she wasn't joking.

"Two promises," she stated.

"That could be pushing it, Rose," Shadow warned.

Amy pouted and ignored his statement.

"Promise one, promise me you'll rest up and take more care of yourself from now on."

Shadow scoffed. What was she, his mother?

"And promise two?" he reluctantly asked.

"P-promise...promise to be my friend."

Shadow almost stared at her in shock.

It was such a simple request, yet so hard to register in his mind. Friends with Amy Rose? Crazy, nuisance, hammer-swinging, teenage Amy Rose? 18 year old, kind, mature, caring Amy Rose...? He decided to cast the thought aside.

"And what do I get out of this?" Shadow questioned.

Amy looked at him blankly and then genuinely smiled.

"In exchange..." she began while taking his pinky and linking it to hers.

Shadow looked at her with a subtly surprised face.

"I'll stay by your side, always."

* * *

**3:01 pm**

Sonic paced around the room nervously. He was nervous for tonight and the plan they were going to pull off made him nervous too. He wasn't sure if the mission would determine the fate of the emeralds.

As soon as he got up to go to take a run to calm his nerves, Knuckles burst through the door.

"Sonic! Dude, you'll never guess what I've found." Knuckles yelled.

Sonic put a gloved hand to his face. The upcoming heatwave was approaching so the weather's temperature was slowly rising. He wanted to go outside in the fresh air and warm atmosphere.

"What Knuckles, did you find an ancient engagement ring?" Sonic teased.

Knuckles brow twitched in annoyance.

"No, I found this."

Knuckles held out the last sol emerald in his hand.

"Wait...what?" Sonic yelled.

It had been years that they had been looking for the last 3 emeralds. Now that they had 7 of them, they were so close to helping Blaze back home. And close to completing the invention Tails was working on. Sonic decided that he would mention that to Amy later on tonight and ask for Team Dark's help.

"Hey, Sonic. While you're going on your date, the gang— wait..._is that the last sol emerald_?!" Tails exclaimed.

Sonic grinned with a thumbs up. Knuckles just sighed at the 21-year old's boyish ways.

"It sure is. Now you're one step closer to completing your invention little buddy!" Sonic replied.

As Tails hovered in the air and started celebrating the other two males sighed in relaxation. That was the first piece of good news they had had in months.

"So Tails, what was it that you wanted to tell me?" Sonic asked.

"Well, I was wondering if the gang could come over to get to the bottom of—"

Tails stopped short and looked away.

"To get to the bottom of the mission plan tonight..." he spoke.

Sonic raised a brow. This was the second time Tails had done that. And he didn't like it.

"We've already established that Tails. Is everything okay? Are you hiding something—?" Sonic asked.

"No! I mean, no. I just want you to get the stress off your back and enjoy yourself tonight. See if you can patch things up with Amy."

There was a dangerous silence in the room. Tails started to sweat.

"Alright little buddy, I believe you," Sonic spoke with forced enthusiasm and a fake grin.

Tails quickly nodded and left the room. The only one in the room that knew that the two best friends had just lied to each other was Knuckles. **(And the author.)**

"Let's call Silver and Blaze. Then we can get ready for the date." Knuckles stated.

Sonic paused for a moment before grinning and tapping a few things in on his communicator.

Knuckles, however, had other things on his mind. The double date may not have been a big deal, but Sonic and Amy's relationship was fragile. He blamed himself for not stepping in sooner as Amy was like a little sister to him and Silver but Sonic was his best friend. Besides, he figured that Rouge would've said to let them sort it out themselves.

**'Look how far that got.' **Knuckles thought to himself.

"Yes Blaze, it's here. This isn't one of charmy's pranks again. We finally have all 7!" Sonic shouted over his communicator.

Knuckles smiled. He decided that tonight should be the best night ever.

* * *

**_3:30 pm_**

Amy blushed as she was waiting outside of G.U.N for Rouge to lock the office up and to go shopping. Rouge had walked right in on Shadow and Amy having their moment...and she was wondering if Shadow hated her now.

**(Flashback)**

_After Shadow had heard those two promises that he had to keep, nothing could distract him from what Amy had said. Shadow didn't know it, but a huge hue of red sat across his muzzle while he stared at Amy in deep thought. His thoughts started to wander to Maria and her death. He had made a promise to her and he was able to keep it. But look at the pain and turmoil it had caused him._

_"No, Amy. I-I can't." Shadow stated._

_Amy looked taken aback. She hadn't seen Shadow like this before. He was normally cool and witty or just minding his business. Now he was paying attention to her when he didn't have to. She was surprised. _

_"Why not? Please Shadow, give me a chance. What about Rouge? Isn't she your-?"_

_"Rouge is a comrade. That's different."_

_Amy was starting to become frustrated._

_"But Shadow-!"_

_Shadow growled and firmly put his hands on her shoulders._

_"Did you see what happened last time when someone made a promise similar to that? What happened to them huh? Or do you not remember?" Shadow hissed._

_Amy widened her eyes and tears quickly sprang to her eyes as she remembered what he was talking about. So that's why he reacted the way he did._

_"...Shadow, I don't want you to be lonely. I want you to have someone close to you, someone, who you can call on whenever you need help. I wanna be that person. Please let me be your friend and stay by your side." Amy pleaded._

_Shadow scowled and took a look at Amy. No matter if he said no, she still pushed it. He knew Amy was just as stubborn as his rival. Shadow scoffed and looked away from her. There was a hint of unbelief in his small smirk._

_"You're joking, right?" Shadow stated._

_Amy smacked his shoulder lightly with a grumpy face. Shadow looked at her in shock._

_"I'm serious!" she yelled._

_There was a silence before Amy saw Shadow lowly chuckling at her face. Amy rolled her eyes and started to giggle too._

_"I guess this means we're friends now, huh?" Amy spoke._

_Shadow grinned and looked away._

_"Whatever Rose."_

_"Yay, thanks Shadow!" Amy cheered._

_She pulled him into a hug as she sat on the bed next to him. Surprisingly, Shadow hugged back this time. As they half pulled away from each other, there was a brief moment when they stared into each other's eyes. Shadow could smell Amy's scent and one of her hands were resting lightly on her chest fur. Amy bashfully looked away, smiling._

**_'She's...surprisingly cute when she does that, huh.' _**_he absentmindedly thought to himself.  
**'Wait,**_** what-?"**_  
_

_"Well, well what do you have here, hm?" a voice spoke._

_Amy and Shadow stared at Rouge like a dear caught in headlights. Rouge had a devious smirk over her face while she stood by the door while Tasha looked away, clearing her throat. The two were in a compromising position. Shadow pushed Amy off of him and turned over in his bed like he was asleep. Amy felt awkward and jumped away from the bed, looking at Rouge in disbelief._

_"Wait, Rouge. It's not-"_

_Rouge burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Tasha went over to communicate to Shadow about what would be happening for the next few days._

_"Good news guys. Shadow should be out by tomorrow. He just needs us to lend him some crutches and he should be almost healed by Monday." Tasha spoke with a smile on her face._

_Amy's eyes lit up and Rouge smiled._

_"As for you Miss Rouge and what we discussed earlier, collect it at the desk. I need to re-dress your injured wing."_

_"Right. Meet me outside Amy, I'll lock up the office." Rouge spoke._

_Amy nodded and took one last look at Shadow. He would be home tomorrow._

_"U-uh...bye Shadow..." Amy spoke. _

_Amy didn't get a response. Maybe Shadow wasn't too sure about her proposal after all..._

**_(Flashback end.)_**

Amy shook her head after remembering all that. She had enjoyed herself today. A new start, a new place, new colleagues, new job and new friends. She was starting to settling into her new life, even though she knew she would still miss her old one. All the drama would go away at some point she figured.

"Outta the way." someone spoke before barging her out of the way.

Amy dropped her things on the floor. She was a little annoyed but apologised to the person without looking at them. The person put their shoe on her book.

"Excuse me, look me in the eye and say sorry." the hamster rudely spoke. The weasel next to her laughed.

Amy looked up and glared up at them. She could see that their tags said, intermediate agent.

"You know I'm your senior right?" Amy spoke and yanked the book out from under her foot. She had had enough of rude colleagues for one day.

The hamster grabbed Amy's wrist.

"Excuse me?! Who the hell do you think you are?" The hamster yelled.

Amy didn't answer. She kept looking ahead. The weasel grew annoyed with Amy's behaviour.

"You know her father is one of the bosses here right? They won't tolerate your behaviour." the weasel spoke.

"Let go of me right now." Amy hissed.

"Huh? Or what? What are you gonna do? Call your little friends to save you again? How weak." the hamster laughed.

"That's enough. Let go of her." Rouge spoke up unhappily.

The hamster let go and smirked while flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Nobody's scared of you Rouge. I'll leave you to come to your friend's rescue, AGAIN." the hamster taunted.

Rouge's eyebrow twitched but she kept her cool.

"Oh? Well, it won't be me you're scared of if you keep messing with Amy. She's stronger than you think." Rouge replied.

"Really now? They promote weaklings and call them strong? What's become of this workplace, honestly?" The hamster continued.

"I'm warning you, don't come near us again." Rouge spat with a dark tone.

The hamster flinched and grabbed her friend's hand while walking away.

"This won't be the last you see of me," she spoke.

Rouge shook her head with her hands on her hips.

"People these days huh, Amy?"

There was silence.

"Amy? Girl are you okay?"

"Huh? Y-yeah I'm fine." Amy spoke with a fake smile.

Rouge shook her head and sighed.

"I hope what they say doesn't get to you, Amy. You know who you are, so ignore those idiots."

Amy smiled. She thanked chaos for having a friend like Rouge.

"Right, Amy, let's go shopping!"

* * *

**Hey there guys! Thank you to the people who wished Pink Annoyance a happy birthday. I'm so sorry I've put this chapter off for so long. I was becoming worried that nobody wanted to read anymore because I wasn't posting and I was stressing out too. Not to worry though, I've got everything under control now! Let me just say that I'm sorry that the date chapter is being put off for so long! I can give you a release date though. Chapter 18 (12th July) or Chapter 19 (30th July). That's when the action will happen. I want this double date to be interesting and full of Juicy drama. Let me know what you think about what has happened in the story so far! I'd like to know your thoughts. You can review or PM me, I always reply.**

**As for everything else, I'm going to be fixing up spelling mistakes, the Pink Annoyance info and some other little touch-ups that you might notice. I'm also letting you know that this story is also available on Wattpad by the account "TheOriginalAmy_" Go on and check it out! Though I maybe need to touch that up a little bit.**

**If I do not reach my release dates, I'm working on my speech for year 11. I'm a nervous and shy person, so I'll have to work extra hard on it to WOW everyone. It's part of my Grade too. It would be nice if I got some encouragement.**


	21. 18 Shopping and Surprises

Westopolis High Street, Imperium Mall

4:08 pm

The time was coming close to the date. Maybe 6 was a little early to go, but it would be easier to get in. The girls had to go shopping first though. Rouge was currently walking around Imperium Mall looking for the right store for Amy. Amy and Omega were trailing behind slowly.

To be completely honest, Rouge wasn't really sure about Amy's style. One minute the girl was all dressy and girly but then the next, she was a gothic-looking Tomboy.

After debating to herself if she should give up on her instincts, she finally asked Amy what she had wanted to wear.

"So Amy, other than the plan, what's your goal for tonight?" Rouge inquired.

"What do you mean by "goal"? Are you talking about getting close to Sonic again?" Amy asked.

Rouge shook her head.

"Are you planning to go casual, the old Amy look or...to stand out?" Rouge asked.

Amy stroked her chin as she was lost deep in thought. She wanted to stand out...but she also wanted to make a message to Sonic and the old team, that she had changed. That being said, she didn't want to overdress as this was a casual double date. She came to a conclusion and smirked.

"How about a mix of all 3?" Amy suggested.

Rouge returned her smirk.

"Finally, we're getting somewhere. I like a good challenge."

Amy noticed that everyone was looking at her. She was the old member of the freedom fighters, so no doubt she would have some fans. She was also with Rouge who was good looking and a huge robot. There was no wonder as to why they were looking at her.

"What're you all looking at, scram!" Rouge protested.

Amy looked at Rouge in shock while Rouge just flipped her hair over her shoulder and continued walking. Amy shook her head and continued to follow Rouge. Omega silently floated behind them.

As the girls continued to browse the stores, Rouge really couldn't find anything that would suit Amy's style. That was if Amy had a style in the first place.

Until a ginger cat spoke to them as they passed by.

"Hey, there Rouge! Nice to see you again. You look like you're having trouble."

Rouge glanced at the girl before running up to her and squeezing her into a hug.

"Angela, hun! So nice to see you! I was planning to stop by Lakeside today." Rouge replied.

Angela glanced over at Amy. Where had she seen this hedgehog before?

"Who's your friend?" Angela asked.

"Oh, this is my friend Amy."

Angela looked taken aback. Amy nervously smiled and waved.

"The one and only Amy Rose? Oh my goodness, I apologise for not introducing myself earlier." Angela spoke.

"Oh no, it's alright. A friend of Rouge is a friend of mine." Amy stated.

Angela smiled at both of them.

"How may I assist you, two fine ladies, today?"

"Well, we were looking for something, but I hope it's not too complicated." Rouge chuckled.

Angela smirked.

"Nothing's ever too complicated for Lakeside Valley's clothing. Come on inside!"

The two girls walked inside the store, leaving Omega outside. Amy gasped as she walked into the expensive store. She definitely wouldn't have the money to pay for these things if it weren't for her promotion.

That being said, the two mobian girls noticed that the large store was mysteriously empty.

"Hey Angela, why's the store so... empty?" Rouge asked.

Angela sighed.

"Ever since I was promoted to Manager, so many of the staff resigned for some reason, some even being mean to the customers on purpose to make sure that I had a hard time operating the store! Now it's just two people, a cashier and someone to help restock and guide people around the store. Ever since this happened, less and fewer customers have been showing up."

Rouge looked concerned.

"That's terrible, you should've contacted me about this Angie! I could've sorted this out for you." Rouge spoke worriedly.

'Angela sure sounds like a close friend to Rouge.' Amy thought, 'Even so, I want to help her out.'

"I'll help you," Amy spoke up.

Angela raised an eyebrow.

"How?"

Amy regained her confidence.

"Just do me a favour and find me the outfit I request. After all, a friend in need is a friend indeed."

Angela smiled. She was glad someone was willing to help her out.

"Okay, Amy. What're you looking for?"

Amy looked at Rouge and smiled.

"Well Amy over here is going for something a little casual, yet it stands out. Something that would resemble the old her, but switched up."

Angela thought hard for a second before taking the girls to a different part of the clothing store. There seemed to be special designs and high-quality clothing in the area.

"I'll leave you girls here to do your thing. Trust me on this one, you'll find what you're looking for."Angela spoke before walking off to see if any customers outside would be interested.

Rouge looked over at Amy after scanning over a couple of outfits.

"What size are you Amy?" Rouge asked.

"I'm a size 10 in everything but shoes," Amy replied.

"Perfect. I'll be back in a bit."

Rouge walked over to a certain designer aisle. Some of them definitely stood out to her, but they weren't casual. Red, Black, Pink and White were Amy's colours, so she would have to look for that too. Then there was the casual clothing that was just way too casual. For once, Rouge questioned her shopping skills.

"Hey, c' mere for a bit Amy,"

Amy walked over to the area she was standing in.

"Pick 3 outfits that look good to you and I'll decide which one is the best," Rouge stated.

Amy nodded slowly before walking over to a certain rack of clothing. She then picked out three outfits, shoes and accessories.

Amy headed inside the changing room and tried on the first outfit. She then stepped out.

The first outfit she picked out was a black turtleneck top underneath a pink plaid pinafore dress ending above the knees. With it, she wore black sandals.

"Hm...this one is pretty cute for autumn, but with this heatwave, you'll die. Also, that's way too casual. Next." Rouge stated.

Amy pouted and went back into the changing room to put on the second one. She stepped out again.

The second outfit she picked out was a white skater dress with a pink floral design along the bottom of it, ending above the knees and white heels.

"Well, this one is short and cute...but it's a little too cutesy for what we're going for tonight. I hope the next one will wow me or we'll be here all day."

Amy huffed and went back in, praying that the third one would be okay. She then stepped out once more.

The third outfit she picked out was black high waisted skinny jeans with roses that had a black outline patterned along the ankle. She also had on a black v-line strappy top with embroided roses along the cleavage and lastly a denim blue jeans jacket to put over it with roses at the cuffs.

At first, no words were spoken. Just Rouge frowning to herself. Amy was confused but had a sinking feeling that they were gonna be here all day.

Rouge mumbled something, but Amy didn't hear her. When Rouge didn't get a response, she spoke again.

"Girl, we should go shopping more often. Your taste is immaculate!" Rouge cheered. "Tell you what, we're buying all of those outfits. Now, all we need is the accessories and shoes. Then we're good to go."

"Thank you so much Rouge, I don't know what I would do without you!" Amy yelled.

Amy smiled and threw a fist in the air, they were getting somewhere. Amy wanted to help Rouge out too.

"Let me pick out an outfit for you too Rouge."

Rouge sceptically raised an eyebrow about to protest, but Amy was already gone. Rouge sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

'Amy is so straightforward that it isn't funny.' Rouge thought.

Soon, Amy came back with a pile of clothes in her hand. Rouge went into the changing room and tried them all on. Amy felt relaxed and at ease. It was fun shopping with her new friend. She expected it to be lengthy and boring but here they were enjoying themselves.

Amy checked her phone. The time was 4:28 pm. They still had time.

Rouge stepped out of the changing room with a certain outfit on. It was a v-neck tight fitted maroon dress that ended above her knees. It hugged her curves with lace around the cleavage. On top was a black leather jacket with a diamond decorated collar and black strappy heels with diamonds going up the side of the heels.

Rouge silently admired herself in the mirror. She wouldn't dare say it out loud, but Amy's taste in clothing was better than hers. She hadn't expected Amy to choose an outfit like this compared to the red dress she wore when she was younger. Rouge gave Amy a thumbs up to let her know that she liked it. Amy cheered and smiled.

Rouge walked over to the accessories area and quickly came back with something to match Amy's outfit. It was a black designer bag and a golden bracelet. Then Rouge went back to get some black strappy wedges.

As Amy tried on everything, she felt like a whole new person. Sure, she needed a self-care day, but with just a little makeup and perfume, she'd probably keep people's attention tonight. Amy had to stop herself from bursting into tears and hugged Rouge.

Rouge got herself a beige designer handbag and a gold watch.

"Cmon Amy, get changed and let's pay alright? We still have other shopping to do like food and cosmetics." Rouge stated.

Amy and Rouge went to get changed before coming back out with their things in the provided plastic bag.

As they waited at the counter, they looked around to see if Angela was present, but she was nowhere to be seen. Amy wanted to thank her.

The cashier came and rudely snatched the bag out of Amy's hand. It was a pink wolf. Amy ignored it for the time being. She was too happy about the little moment she had with Rouge.

"Altogether 6000 rings." the wolf spoke.

Amy's eyes widened in shock as she reached for her credit card. Rouge gripped her hand and stopped her.

"Excuse me little Miss cashier lady, don't think that just because your manager isn't here that you get to charge us extra. I checked and it's 3000 rings."

The wolf was surprised. Normally her customers never questioned it. She was still offended though.

"It's double the price for ugly, rude mobians. Pay up." The wolf responded.

Rouge's eye twitched. She was going to keep her cool instead of screw kicking the girl who had just insulted her.

"Listen here, missy. I'm not here to pay a disrespectful idiot who doesn't know how to do a simple job such as a receptionist. I'll have you know that I work for G.U.N, so I was supposed to be offered a discount anyway. Furthermore, you've just disrespected one of the most famous heroes on this planet. Don't make yourself a fool. I'll settle for a lower price for your behaviour."

The pink wolf look startled. She didn't know what she had just gotten herself involved in.

"No need. Sorry about Mylene's behaviour. You can have your things at a discounted 1250 rings." Angela spoke from the entrance.

Mylene walked away while mumbling an apology. Angela came to the counter and sadly shook her head.

"It's because of staff like these why my shop can't function properly, oh no, what do I do..." Angela whined to herself while scanning the items.

Amy and Rouge looked at each other, pitying the girl.

"We'll help." Amy and Rouge spoke at the same time.

Angela's eyes lit up.

"Really?! I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine Angela, you helped us so let us help you," Amy spoke.

Angela smiled at the two while they paid for their stuff.

"Thank you, girls. I hope this is not unprofessional of me, but stop by anytime for a drink at the boba place for a chat! I'd love to help you with anything." Angela spoke.

The two mobians nodded before leaving the shop. They took Angela's number and started to walk towards the west wing of the mall to look for other shops.

* * *

4:32 pm

Knuckles had gone to his house and Sonic came with him. Knuckles had two houses, one on Angel Island and one in Westopolis. They were currently at the one in Westopolis.

Knuckles was chilling out and napping on his hammock in his garden before the date; napping was another thing he liked to do. He wanted to be calm and well-rested, he knew he was going to enjoy himself tonight.

Sonic, on the other hand, went from pacing towards and backwards to running in circles and the pacing again. He was getting cold feet.

'How is Amy going to react tonight? Will she still see me as a friend? Will the date even go well? Will she come with a boyfriend? Will she replace me with...Shadow?'

Sonic stopped running and fell over from the abrupt stop at that thought. He was thinking too deep into this. After all, it was just Amy.

"Sonic, I can't nap if you're talking that loud. Shut up. And stop trying to wear holes into my floor." Knuckles groaned.

Sonic just realised that he had said all of that out loud. He had a bad habit of doing that.

"Also Sonic, it's not 'just Amy', she's an important friend to you. Stop talking about her as if she wasn't important to you." Knuckles stated before putting his arms behind his head and laying back on the hammock again.

Sonic shook his head at himself.

Knuckles was right. Amy was an important friend to him.

However, he was way too nervous to see how she would behave tonight. After all, the Amy he was hoping for was the old Amy. The one who smelled of strawberries and had a considerably terrible temper, yet the brightest smile. That was the one who he missed, the one he was friends with.

He hadn't really noticed the changes in her as the years went by because he thought to himself that it didn't matter.

'Everyone grows up. After all, Amy is just a friend.' Sonic thought.

He saw her as someone who needed protection 24/7, always finding trouble. Being naive and yet completely organised.

What he had failed to see was her strength, the things she liked to do and how caring she was for the people around her. Sure, she wasn't the best person in the past but it wasn't like she was a completely terrible girl. She was lovely if you caught her in her good moments.

It was hard for him to believe that she was turning 19 next week. He hadn't realised that Amy wasn't 12 anymore and was now a whole ass adult. Before she left, they had been hanging out more, talking more and he even agreed to go on a... 'date' as she called it. When they had really gone to the park on a picnic and watched the stars. Of course, Sally was not happy.

He decided to discard those thoughts, thinking about it had made him feel a great deal of guilt.

After what he saw yesterday, was she really the same person he was hoping for? The fact that Amy really was an adult hit him in the face, hard.

Sonic felt a pain in his lower stomach and back which distracted him from his train of thought. It wasn't as bad as last night, but it still bothered him. He was still a little weakened from the machine.

'Should I even head out today if I'm this weakened?' Sonic thought to himself.

Sonic looked over to Knuckles who was silently napping on a hammock. Sonic sped to a chair on his porch and laid back in it.

'Maybe a nap should do the trick.'

All of a sudden, as Sonic was about to drift off, he saw a vision of the light pink hedgehog.

Sonic snapped his eyes open and hyperventilate before getting up to drink a glass of water. He had a feeling there was a reason why Tails wasn't being straightforward with the dream was that it had something to do with Amy.

'I mean, it sure looked like Amy. Would Amy really have the ability to turn dark?' Sonic asked himself.

Sonic vigorously shook his head and sighed. Maybe he would ask her about it tonight.

He could only hope that he was able to fix the friendship between him and his lost friend.

* * *

"Alright, Amy. It's time to get you some cosmetics. I've noticed you don't have much, but we're coming shopping tomorrow, so we're not gonna buy much today." Rouge spoke.

Amy nodded while smiling. This shopping day was going well so far. She actually liked her new life and new friends. She wondered what would've happened if she had continued on the Freedom Fighters. Would she have been as happy now?

She shook her head as Rouge stopped in front of what Amy presumed to be Rouge's favourite cosmetic shop.

"Hey Amy, there's a sale at one of my fave shops. Let's roll." Rouge squealed.

Amy shook her head and smiled. Rouge acted like a child who received the gift they wanted on Christmas Day while shopping. As Amy walked inside the store, she saw Rouge choosing which products to pick up carefully. Amy checked her phone again and the time was 4:41 pm. Maybe they still had a little time left.

Amy sat down and started to chat idly with Omega while they waited for Rouge to come back with the products.

"Hey Amy, I was trying to decide what products to get you because I've noticed that you have sensitive skin, but I couldn't find any. So I tried to look for something from the line that I use and thank god they have a sensitive version!" Rouge exclaimed.

Amy rose a brow in confusion but decided to peer into the shopping basket. She noticed the skincare products but then she saw a shower gel set. It was a sakura cherry-blossom scent.

"Hey Rouge, I'm not used to these kinda products, are you sure-?!" Amy started.

"Oh c'mon Pinky, you really think I'm gonna choose something that isn't good for you? This is a line I use too but it's just in a different scent. Plus, I think this kind of scent suits you, don't you think?"

Amy sighed and smiled. She was overreacting. Plus this could be a chance to show people that she had actually left the old her behind.

"Plus, it's shadow's favourite scent," Rouge stated.

Amy looked over at Rouge with wide eyes and a red face.

"What makes you think I'm trying to impress Shadow?!"

"Chill out girl, help me out a little. I've noticed a change in Shadow's behaviour ever since you've come on this team. Sure, at first we didn't want you here but you've made us all change somehow. Maybe you could get closer to Shadow if you're wearing his favourite scent hm~?" Rouge teased.

Amy glared at Rouge, but not in a rude way. Rouge was trying to make it seem like it was for the wellbeing of Shadow when it was probably one of her ploys to stir up mischief again. Regardless, Amy sighed and went along with it.

'If it's to help Shadow...and if it helps me get closer to him then why not?' Amy thought to herself.

"Plus, I've seen the way you look at him-"

"J-just get on with it already!" Amy blurted out while pushing Rouge to the counter to pay for their things.

* * *

5:00 pm

Shadow stirred out of his sleep and slowly opened his eyes. He adjusted his eyes to the light and sat up in his bed wondering when and how he fell asleep. He looked at the clock in the room and it read 5:02 pm.

How long had he slept for? He didn't check the time before he went to sleep.

Shadow got out of the hospital bed and as his feet made contact with the cold floor, he noticed something. There wasn't as much friction or burning under the bandaging and dressing on his legs. For a moment, he felt sort of happy. He could leave the hospital earlier than he wanted to.

"Mr Shadow? Are you alright? I really don't think you should be walking." Tasha spoke as she walked into the room.

Shadow looked up at her. He appreciated her concern but didn't want to be treated like a baby.

"I'm fine, Tasha. Can you check my dressing please?" Shadow spoke.

Tasha looked at him sceptically before kneeling down and undoing his dressing.

"...Shadow, I don't know what it is about you that is causing you to heal quickly, but you only need the dressing for today and then you can go about your day. Just remember to take lukewarm showers/baths for up to a week, please. Use the crutches for up to two more days and avoid the rocket shoes please. Unless you can get someone to modify them for you." Tasha stated.

Shadow inwardly rejoiced. He couldn't stand being inside the hospital as an elite agent. He wouldn't dare say it out loud but he actually felt kind of lonely and bored being locked inside of that room to heal. Then again, it was probably for his own good. Just like Sonic, Shadow wasn't one who was very fond of staying in the same place all day.

Shadow decided to try getting out of the hospital so that he could make his way home.

"Is it okay if I go home today, actually?" Shadow asked.

He grimaced as he did it, he would never imagine politely requesting something as simple as this. Then again, he actually had respect for Tasha for looking out for him the most when the other nurses did not.

Tasha looked at him with a startled face. Shadow hadn't even been in here for a week. She had told him that he should rest in the hospital for a week to heal up even after she had noticed that he was a special type of mobian. Even so, her father probably wouldn't listen to her if she asked if Shadow could have the week off to heal. She sighed and signed a paper.

"Here, why don't you take a shower and hand this slip of paper into the office to collect your things?" Tasha offered.

Shadow nodded and took the piece of paper, leaving it in his pocket.

"Thank you," Shadow spoke.

Tasha smiled and left the room. Just as Shadow got up and was about to head to the shower, he heard a crash outside. There were a lot of loud voices outside. Shadow could see what was going on outside the hospital room.

"Tasha, what the hell?! Watch where you're going." a yellow monkey spoke.

"Are you really that concentrated on your little boyfriend patient and daddy issues that you can't even do your job right?" A pink monkey shouted.

"Excuse me?! You bumped into me!" Tasha yelled.

Shadow got up, took his crutches and hopped over to where Tasha was. He saw two twin monkeys in nurses uniforms. He walked over to Tasha and helped her up from the floor. The yellow monkey spoke up.

"Who are you?" he asked.

Shadow glared.

"Head Agent Shadow from the elite floor," Shadow spoke.

The pink monkey gasped.

"We're so sorry Head Agent-"

"You should be apologising to her," Shadow stated.

The two monkeys glared at Tasha before apologising and walking away.

Tasha looked down at him in shock because as soon as the two nurses left, he started to clean up what Tasha had dropped.

"Please Shadow, don't bother yourself. This was my fault-"

"I didn't come out here to help you just for you to say that it was your fault," Shadow stated.

Tasha flinched at his attitude.

"I'm sorry."

Shadow stared at Tasha. Another person who had made him care even more for them. Putting it together, he had just made a new friend.

"Don't apologise. Learn to stand up for yourself more." Shadow spoke.

Tasha took her things from Shadow and held them to her chest.

"Why did you do that for me, Mr Shadow?"

Shadow glanced at her. One minute the nurse called him Shadow and the next she added the Mr.

"It's Shadow. And I guess you could say we're acquainted. I appreciate your hospitality." Shadow spoke before leaving.

Tasha looked at him, completely lost. Nonetheless, she decided she would speak to her father after this.

Shadow went to the desk and spoke to the receptionist.

"Hello, I'd like to check out please," Shadow spoke.

The male brown weasel peered from under his thick-rimmed glasses.

"Position?" He asked.

"Head agent."

"Name?"

"Shadow."

The weasel rolled his eyes.

"Obviously, your full name."

Shadow glared at him.

"Shadow Robotnik."

The weasel did a bit of typing and scrolling before speaking again.

"You don't seem to have been in here before, yet your hospital bill is strangely paid. I'm going to need to register one more thing and then you can leave."

Shadow tapped his foot impatiently even though he was on crutches. The weasel seemed untethered by Shadow's method of intimidation.

"Date of birth and age?"

"December 23rd. Physically 20." Shadow spoke.

The weasel cocked a brow in question but decided to leave it. He got up and collected Shadow's personal belongings and clothing that Amy had bought from their house and handed them over to Shadow.

"May I have the paper signed by the nurse please?"

Shadow handed the paper over to him. The weasel read it and spoke again.

"You're free to use the showers before you leave. Ask the nurse that gave you this to redress your legs before leaving. Good day."

Shadow nodded before walking over to the shower area. He arrived at a shower locker and left his personal belongings in there.

Shadow waited until the cleaners had cleaned the shower and then headed inside.

He used the provided soap and shampoo to clean himself and kept burnt area of his legs dry. Then he dried his fur off and got changed.

As he was getting changed, he questioned as to why the weasel hadn't asked him to pay anything for the hospital bill...then he recalled what the weasel had said.

Someone had paid for it. Who else could it have been other than Amy?

'She's totally treating me like a baby...' Shadow thought to himself.

As he continued thinking to himself he remembered the promises that he had made and the embarrassing things that Amy had said before she left.

'Promise to stay by my side always, huh,' Shadow thought to himself.

Now, where had he heard that one before?

* * *

Team Dark's Home

5:20 pm

Rouge and Amy stumbled into the house. They were tired, sweaty and excited. Amy went and set the food shopping down on the counter before glancing at the clock. It was 5:24 pm. Omega went to his charging station.

"Uh Rouge, don't you think we're gonna be-"

"Relax Amy, we'll be fine. Knowing Knuckles...and Sonic, they're also probably gonna be late." Rouge spoke.

Amy stared at Rouge sceptically. Amy liked to attend places on time. She reminded herself that she'd done that with Sonic. He'd either show up when she began to think he wasn't coming or not show up at all...Maybe it was time for Amy to take back her wasted time.

"...Fine Rouge. Just don't make us arrive there_ too_ late." Amy spoke.

Rouge clapped her hands together excitedly. Amy was startled. She had never seen Rouge behave like this before in front of her. Had they gotten closer?

"Well? What are you waiting for? Go and get ready. I'll get some makeup and our outfits ready in the meantime." Rouge spoke.

Amy nodded and headed upstairs to get ready. As she was walking upstairs, she saw a figure. She blinked twice to make sure she wasn't seeing things. There was indeed someone walking toward her. She got ready to yell and summon her hammer when the figure's hand switched on the light.

It was Shadow...on crutches.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?! I-I mean Shadow?! What are you doing out of the hospital?" Amy yelled.

Shadow's ears folded from all the noise. This was the first time he had walked anywhere in days.

"They released me early. If anyone should be asking questions, it's me. Why did you register me with the hospital and pay the hospital bill? I'm not a baby, and it's not like I'm going to be in there again."

Amy rolled her eyes. Could this hedgehog stop worrying about others and just show some appreciation sometimes?

"Shut up, Shadow. I'm tired of you moaning about me doing things for you. That's what friends are for. Now be quiet and rest up." Amy stated.

Shadow was taken aback and looked at Amy with a slightly confused face before smirking.

"It seems you've gotten braver now that I'm on crutches," Shadow spoke.

Amy rolled her eyes.

"I said...rest up. I don't want my new friend feeling unwell tomorrow if I've missed them so much." Amy stated while smiling.

Shadow stared at Amy's smile and blushed and looked away before excusing himself and hopping over to his room. Amy looked at him as he hopped away.

If they were just best friends, why was he blushing? Amy shrugged it off and headed to her room which was next to Shadows.

She stripped out of her clothing and put it in the linen basket next to her door. She then searched into the bag for her new products, snatched her towel and bathrobe and whizzed off to the bathroom.

As she locked the door, she hung her things and put her products down on the counter next to the sink. Then she slumped against the door. She was tired, fatigued and exhausted from her missions. She really needed a self-care day and some rest.

Amy stretched her arms as she regained her energy from being excited for the date to continue to get ready. She opened up the box of face care products and decided to get to work on her face.

She wiped the makeup off with the brand's makeup removal wipes, removed her lashes and used some of the brand's micellar water to cleanse her face. Then she used a foaming face wash to cleanse her face. After that, she used the brand's toner to get rid of any leftover bacteria and decided that she would moisturise her face after her shower.

"Amy, hurry up! Otherwise, we'll really be late because of you!" Rouge yelled from the floor below.

"S-sorry, just give me a minute!" Amy answered back.

Amy opened up the other box of products which was a sakura cherry blossom set and she blushed as she recalled what Rouge said before shaking her head.

'Let's hope this goes well.' Amy thought to herself.

Amy turned on the water before waiting for it to heat up and stepped inside. She used the shampoo to carefully shampoo her hair and rinsed it out. Then she put the conditioner in her hair and let it sit while she used the soap and shower gel to clean her body.

'Rouge was right...this stuff actually smells really good. My fur and hair feel way softer...' Amy reminisced to herself.

Amy stopped herself from getting sidetracked before rinsing everything off and stepping out of the shower. She wrapped a towel around her hair and dried her fur before putting the brand's lotion on it and moisturising her face. She also sprayed on the Sakura Cherry Blossom Body Mist. She then put on her red bathrobe and tidied up the bathroom before leaving. As she stepped outside, she saw Rouge unhappily folding her arms.

"Sorry if I took long..." Amy spoke nervously while scratching the back of her head and nervously smiling.

Rouge just sighed.

"You didn't, I'm just impatient. You're allowed to wait in my room._ Don't touch anything_." Rouge stated.

Amy nodded, confused, but did as she was told. As she entered Rouge's room, she saw white painted walls, a huge velvet bed with bed curtains, a huge walk-in closet and a mini vanity. Amy noticed a locked door but didn't question it.

"Jeez, when I looked at Rouge I didn't expect her room to be this fancy..." Amy spoke to herself.

Amy knew Rouge was going to take a long time, so she decided to get herself ready.

Amy usually straightened her hair or put it up in a ponytail, but she wanted to do something different tonight. She let her hair stay naturally curly, her quills weren't messy when she left them alone.

She then took out her outfit from the shopping bags laid next to Rouge's bed. As she laid it on the bed she couldn't help but smile as to how she was about to look tonight.

She then decided to do her makeup. She did smokey eyes, mascara and red lipstick. She didn't want to be too heavy on the makeup as it didn't suit her. She then added some concealer and then sprayed her face and added powder so that her face could set.

Amy stared at herself in the mirror. This was very different from the old her, but she felt like it was still her. She wasn't trying to be somebody she wasn't. This actually suited her. She smiled at herself and thanked Chaos for having such a good friend like Rouge. She was also surprised she was able to pull this off.

All of a sudden, she heard a sound outside of the room which startled her. She turned around and saw that it was Rouge in her dressing gown. She was standing there speechless. Amy was scared.

"Have I done something wrong..?" Amy asked.

Rouge just walked into the bedroom while staring at Amy as if she couldn't fathom something. Amy stood there very confused.

"It seems...that you and I are in a competition..." Rouge spoke

"W-What do you mean?"

"Girl, it's like you do everything better than me. I'm starting to become jealous!" Rouge complimented.

Amy giggled. Rogue's reactions made her laugh.

Rouge just shook her head. Amy was talented in more ways that one it seemed. Maybe Rouge really had the wrong impression if her over the years.

"Well, I'm going to get ready. Let me know when the doorbell rings." Rouge spoke before kicking Amy out of her room and closing the door. Amy took her towel, bathrobe and products back to her room.

'Hold up, did she just say something about the doorbell ringing?' Amy asked herself.

Amy rushed into her room and started panicking. Were they coming to pick them up? Or were they just taking a taxi?

Maybe it was a taxi. But taxis didn't normally ring bells, they called.

Which means there was a possibility they were going to pick them up.

Which meant that she was going to see Sonic properly again...in a few minutes.

***Riiiiiing***

Oh no, it was happening way too soon. She couldn't answer that door. She would not be able to keep her cool. But she had to. Rouge was getting ready, Shadow was injured and Omega was currently charging.

Amy cautiously walked downstairs and took a few deep breaths.

'Cmon Amy, it's just Sonic. It's just a doorbell. Stop freaking out.' She pep talked herself.

***Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing***

"C-Coming!" Amy spoke.

She got herself together before opening the door and speaking.

"H-hi Sonic, you're a little early and Rouge is still..."

Amy opened her eyes to see an unamused badger with 2 pizza boxes in his hand.

"Delivery for Ms Rouge?" The badger questioned.

Amy blushed and embarrassed red before paying and tipping the delivery driver and closing the door. She then turned around and headed to the kitchen to set the pizza down when she saw Rouge.

Rouge was wearing her outfit with her medium length hair straightened, dark red eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara and red lipstick.

Amy's jaw dropped. What was Rouge even talking about? She had no competition whatsoever. Rouge couldn't even compare to her. She was way too good looking.

"Fabulous right? And it's all thanks to you. Well, the makeup was also inspired by you. However...I'm willing not to take credit just this once.

Amy giggled.

"Rouge, I'm not THAT good at looks. I just do what comes to mind. Now let's get going, look at the time, 5:51pm!" Amy exclaimed.

Rouge looked shocked.

"When I said fashionably late, i didnt mean this late..." Rouge complained.

Amy shook her head, put down the pizzas and sprayed on the Sakura Cherry Blossom perfume before grabbing her purse and bags and calling a taxi.

As the two girls waited on the taxi, they wondered...

What would be held in store for them tonight?


	22. PA Notice

**This isn't an update, Chapter 19 is coming out in a few days. On the 2nd of August.**

**Before I start I want to clarify that I am not sure if it was aimed towards me, so I just wanted to clear everything up regardless.**

**I am going to take a mature approach to this.**

This notice is to explain something that I should have addressed a long time ago.

I remember posting a chapter explaining how my story is not plagiarised in any way. I explained the definition of plagiarism and how people should not be flaming on about things because it could start unwanted drama on this website. Many people PMed me calling me rude and telling me to delete the story, sending me links to the stories I 'plagiarised'.

To me, this is not just a website but it is an amazing platform where I can communicate with other readers, especially the people who write the most amazing stories. They help you improve the style of your writing and give you the content that you think you can't find anywhere. You have to remember that we all have similar ideas. Inspiration and plagiarism are not the same. I can take constructive criticism but I also do not condone flames. Let me tell you how this all began. I had started to write the story 'Pink Annoyance' back around Christmas time in 2018 on the website Wattpad. By the name, "iiZoeChu"

At first, the story was about Amy trying to get over her crush on Sonic because she felt as if she did not want to be stuck in a childish persona. Amy was a shell of herself and was homeless before Cream's mother found her and Rouge took her in. She tried to move on from her old abusive life and became stronger, but was too reckless when she got involved with 'love'. At first, it was just a crush but it eventually developed into an obsession.

When she was heartbroken, because the person's feelings were not the same as hers, she selfishly ran away and left her friends behind to start over. Here, she eventually fell in love and accidentally got into a relationship with the most famous mobian of all time. She became famous and a new singer trying to make music, trying her best to move on from her old self. But after a while, she realised that pretending to live a happy life became toxic.

Until after a while, she couldn't handle the pressure and it was up to Shadow to save her from her new life.

Because I thought that this idea was childish, I decided to change it. This was around May. This is because if Amy is a Singer/Celeb and Shadow is busy working in G.U.N, how the hell would they cross paths?

At the time I was very inspired by some stories on Wattpad about Amy joining Team G.U.N and them helping her to mature as a person. I also decided to include Omega in this, since I Omega was never paid attention to. This is because I watched a video on YouTube (From the Youtube Channel: Characters in Depth). Everyone seemed to think that Shadow was an Edgelord, that Rouge was a cold-hearted adult, forgot about Omega and painted Amy as a Crazy fangirl. I also noticed that characters like Sally, Blaze, Silver, Espio, Charmy and Vector wasn't involved in any stories and decided to add them into the story.

At this time as well, I realised that I had an account on this website. I have been on this platform for a while now and have been reading authors' stories like "NebulaTheHedgehog, BulletNick, and AmberAddilynRose" for YEARS and YEARS. So I decided to move some of my writing from wattpad to this website in the interest that more people would like my stories. And this was true, more people started to PM me and I have more people to talk to which I am grateful. :)

Let me explain what the current 'Pink Annoyance' is about.

It is about Amy being kicked off of the Team because they think that because Eggman may be planning something drastically big, that Amy may get in the way during important moments in the mission. They try to lay it on her easy by telling her that she should take a break, but it's too late because Amy isn't having it. She knows what's up. She wasn't blind, she is going to turn 19 in two months anyway. So they end up kicking her off the team because they've had enough of her. Through this time Amy is seeking salvation. She knows she can't just go home and mope because then her motivation would deteriorate. She knows she can't trust her friends because they let her down when she was kicked off the team. This hurt her a lot. Instead, she sought salvation from the very people she'd never thought she'd go to. This story has a Fantasy-like theme because I don't see much fantasy themes about STH.

So I asked one of my favourite authors if I could borrow one of the ideas she had called 'Light Amy' and she obliged. Of course, I gave credit as I should have.

I had high hopes for this story. But everyone keeps bringing me down and sending me the SAME link to the story that may have similar ideas, but the characters aren't the same, there is no theme of fantasy, location names are different. The dates do not matter, in the old story the dates were the same in her diary? So can somebody come up with a LOGICAL explanation as to why I am being messaged nasty things? Not to worry though, I choose not to give in to the haters. This is the last time that I address this issue.

Their stories are doing massively well and I can't wait until everyone uploads next.

**I just have one request. If you are going to notify an author about their work being plagiarized, ask questions and obtain evidence first. This would avoid misunderstandings and drama. I just hope to have an amazing time on this platform with the new friends I have made alright? No hard feelings, this is my honest word. :)**


	23. PA Announcement

Hi guys! I have an announcement. I think I'll be putting my stories on hold for a little while. This is so I can concentrate and get my schoolwork out of the way. I know everyone has been waiting for the date but I'll be honest about things. I have some events that are going to take place written down, but I have writer's block and don't know how to start and word my chapters. I really want to cry right now. However, this break gives me time to add more ideas to my chapters and a new story is coming out. Something I have worked on for years.

It's my own kind of fanfiction, and a main story to the prequel, "The Kingdom of Nikoli" by Satskura (which can be found on wattpad). So yeah, I hope people aren't going to hate me for this, please forgive me!

By the way, I'll be responding to your reviews before I go on break and put my stories on hold tomorrow in this chapter since it is really late right now. Other than that, have a great summer! I won't be gone for long!


	24. Hello, I'm back

**This notice will probably be deleted, I'm back though!**

Hey friends! My break has ended today which is the 30th. Although I am quite busy, Pink Annoyance is now back on!

Here are some things you should know.

I have 2-3 chapters which I owe you guys and I can assure you that they're already planned so they should be out soon.

Fixed dates for the updates should come out on the 1st of September.

My laptop needs to be fixed and needs a new charger, and my laptop is what I mainly write on. Unfortunately, I have to switch to my phone which is very hard for me to find grammar mistakes and so on. So I will get this sorted soon enough.

And finally, I'm a British 15 year old going into her last year of secondary school, year 11. So I have my GCSE'S to study for. I will be trying my best to study and in my free time to relax and write as much as I can for you guys!

It's up to you if you want to wish me luck for my exams and encourage me to study or take breaks from writing to focus.

Also, this is also not relveant but my 16th birthday is coming up in October, so watch out for that if you want to!

If it's your birthday, let me know so I can include them in the next chapter and shout you out!

Remember I'm not forcing you to do anything, it's up to you!

Now that I'm finished, I'm wishing you a happy fall/autumn season and to stay warm, safe and happy! :)

Thank you for being patient with me and letting me take a little break.


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